Walking Dead 1. New Girl

**A/n: Hi all, thank you for giving this fic a chance, I know you won't regret it. Enjoy! **

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**Chapter One**

"Luke, can you show our new student around the school, please?"

Luke looks up from his desk, his eyes settling on the new girl. He was so busy throwing wadded up spitballs at hist best friend, Nick, that he hadn't even been paying attention to anything Miss Vigil was saying or doing. Not that he ever regularly paid attention to the teacher.

The new girl is about five-four, with tanned skin, and super wavy, almost curly, dark brown hair, tied into two low pigtails. Her eyes are big and amber-colored. She isn't extraordinarily beautiful, but she was _kind of_ cute.

"Sure. What's her name?" Luke answers, his tone noncommittal.

"Clementine." The new girl answers. She isn't shy like most new kids are, her voice is strong and unwavering.

Luke gets up from his seat and heads out the door, not waiting for Clementine to follow suit. He didn't really want to show her around, but anything was better than being stuck in homeroom for any longer than he needed to be. Nick whistled at they left the room, to which Miss Vigil responds with a "Don't be jealous, Nick. They shouldn't be gone for too long."

"So, do you know where your locker is?" Luke asks her.

Clementine shakes her head, "They said my guide would tell me where it is." She pulls out a small scrap of paper and hands it to Luke. He grabs it, noting that her hands aren't as soft as most girls.

"286? Oh, that's really close to mine. Follow me."

Clementine rolls her eyes. "Well, duh. What the hell else am I supposed to do?"

He ignores her comment and leads her down to the end of the hallway. His was locker 282, all the even numbered lockers were on the same side of the wall. He read the combination scribbled underneath her locker number and opened the locker for her. "This is where you keep your books and stuff."

She nods slowly, "Yes, I know. I had a locker at my old school. Your school isn't the only one with high-tech storage options, you know."

Luke was sure she didn't mean to sound snotty, but she was kind of being a brat. He tried not to let it get to him. He held out his hand. "Gimme your schedule, I'll show you where your classes are."

Clementine swings her purple back around, pulling a piece of paper out, and hands it to Luke. He was confused.

"Why do you have Miss Vigil as your homeroom and math teacher, but all of your other classes are junior classes?"

She gives him a funny look, "Her fourth period is the only time she teaches calculus and our homeroom class is the same as our fourth period. Didn't you know that?"

"_Of course_ I knew that," he rolls his eyes, "What I don't get is why the rest of your classes are junior classes. Were you held back?"

Clementine's amber eyes widen, like he just punched her in her stomach. Or her ego. "No, I was not held back! I am a junior, you nub! I'm just really good at math, so they put me in senior calculus." She scoffs, "Held back, my ass."

_Oh, duh_. He was embarrassed, but refused to let her see. "Ah, well. Lucky you, I had all these classes last year, so I can show you where they all are."

"Are you sure? I'm kinda worried that maybe you were the one that was held back a grade or two. Maybe three." Again her words are mean, but when Luke turns to her to tell her off, he can't help but notice the small, friendly smile on her face. She was definitely more than kind of cute. But she was a junior, a junior that was quite possibly smarter than him. He just shrugged her comment off.

He began to lead her to her first actual class of the day. "So, what do you do, Clementine? Like, in your spare time? Are you gonna join any clubs or sports or anything?"

Clementine shakes her head. "No, I don't think I'll join any clubs. I'm not a club-type girl and I'm not really into sports." She pauses, "After school work is done and stuff, my foster dad takes me to the shooting range. I'm an amazing shot, if you can believe it. I wanna be a police officer. Maybe in the K-9 unit or something." She can't help but realize how uncool she sounds, talking about her dreams and stuff, so she turns the question around. "What about you? Do they let people who were held back into clubs and sports?"

"I wasn't held back!" Luke huffs, "But yeah, I play football and live off video games, when I'm at home."

Clementine snickers, "Of course. Let me guess, star quarterback? Varsity, of course."

Luke laughs, "Close. I'm the star running back on the varsity team. I'll have you know, Clementine, that I'm not actually a walking cliche."

"Hm. A tall, handsome, popular senior, running back on the varsity team, held back because he plays too many video games instead of doing his homework? I guess you're right."

He looks at her, his eyebrows high. "You think I'm handsome?"

He expects her to look away and blush, like most girls would. Instead she stares at him, not even batting an eye. "I said so, didn't I?"

"Well, I mean- you know... I just..." Why is he acting like he should be embarrassed by what she said? _Be cool, dude, be cool_. "I'm just not used to girls being so blunt, I guess."

Clementine shrugs her small shoulders, "It's not like I just asked you to have sex with me or anything. I'm just saying, in a general sense, you are pretty good-looking."

Luke grins at her. "You're really-"

"Abrasive?"

"Honest. You don't beat around the bush."

"Yeah, well, I think it's stupid, pretending to be coy and demure. It causes a lot of unnecessary miscommunication." She pauses, crinkling her nose, "That sounded so... adult-y."

"You definitely weren't held back."

She shakes her head, "No, but if you don't hurry up and show me where my classes are, I just might be."

Luke looks at her one more time, before taking his duties as a tour guide seriously. He had always felt so cool. Like Clementine had said, he was tall, popular, and good-looking. He was on the varsity football team, he had so many friends, he didn't always remember all of their names.

But there was no doubt in his mind that Clementine was infinitely cooler than he was.

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**Thanks, loves~ **


	2. Lunch

**A/n: **Thank you, thank you so much for the positive reviews! I'm gonna try to upload two chapter today, if not, then there will definitely be one tomorrow!

Oh, and beware of super strong language in this chapter. Enjoy!

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"So, what do you think about the new girl, man?" Nick asks his best friend. They sit down at a table in the center of the cafeteria, the biggest one in the room.

Luke plops down across from him heavily. "I don't know, dude. She's not like the other girls from around here."

"Sure, man. I'm sure you could get her to blow you in the supply closet in you wanted. Which means that she's just like every other girl in this damn school."

Luke shrugs, taking a giant bite out of his hamburger. "I don't know, Nick. She shoots guns and wants to be a police officer. I think she'd probably shoot my dick off before she-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, _who's_ gonna shoot your dick off?" Their friend Nate asked, joining them at the table, sitting by Luke. Their other friend (and Nate's best friend) Russel also joined them, sitting by Nick.

"The new girl, Clementine." Nick answers before Luke can deny anything. Luke shoots him a searing look.

"New girl?" Russel asks, "I didn't see any new girl."

"She's a junior," Nick says, "She's only got homeroom and Calculus with us."

Nate shakes his head, "A junior in calculus? No way, man. You can't date a girl that's potentially smarter than you, she'll realize she's too good for you. Just, you know, fuck her then dump her."

"Seriously, dude?" Russel responds with disgust, "Why do you gotta talk like that?"

"Don't be such a girl, Russ."

"I'm not a girl, dude. Thank God, otherwise I would be objectified by assholes like you on the daily."

"Speaking of objectifying," Nate turns to Luke, ignoring Russel's look of annoyance, "How hot was she? Did she have big tits?"

"She's cute, alright? Let's just stop talking about her, okay?" Luke responds, irritated.

"Yeah, okay, but how cute? Like on a scale of one to ten. Rate her tits too."

"Nate, could you just shut the fuck up?" Russel hisses.

Nate opens his mouth to argue with Russel, but Nick speaks out first.

"Look, there she is!" He point his finger across the room, and the three remaining boys all turned their heads to look.

In walked Clementine, holding a a blue tray of food, between two other junior girls. One of them was tall, with black hair and red-glasses, and other other was brunette with a guitar strapped on her back. Luke recognized the four-eyes as Sarah, the photographer for the school newspaper and yearbook, and the other girl as Becca, the girl who always won the school talent shows because she cried when she played her songs. To Luke, these didn't seem like girls that Clementine would hang out with, but what did he actually know about her?

"Hey, she's pretty cute, even though she ain't my type." Nate says, jabbing Luke in the ribs. "Maybe we should invite them to eat with us."

Nick laughs, "Yeah, ask them, Nate. Watch Sarah's head explode when she hears that Luke wants her to eat in his presence."

"Fuck off, Nick." Luke says. He looks over at the trio of girls that were heading in their general direction. It was pretty common knowledge that Sarah had been harboring a crush on Luke ever since she was a Freshman. Just because he didn't like her back, didn't mean he wanted to make her feel weird about it.

"Hey, Clementine!"

The girl looks at Nate as he calls her name. The three girls stop so that she can respond.

"Who are you?" She asks, looking at all of them at the four boys sitting at the table. She only recognized Luke.

"I'm Nate. This is Russel," Russel lifts a hand and waves politely at the girls, "This ugly stud is Nick, and this is Luke."

Luke looks up and nods nonchalantly at Clementine.

"Oh yeah, I know Luke. Is this a study group for guys that were held back?" She grins.

Sarah's eyes widen and she looks at Becca, who just shrugs.

"Listen here, Clementine. I don't know if Luke was held back or not, but I can assure you that I am, in fact, a bit of a genius, if I do say so myself."

Russel throws a roll at Nate, who deflects it expertly. "Man, shut the fuck up. Clementine, he ain't no genius. He's one of the dumbest people I've ever met in my life."

Becca nudges Clementine. "I'm hungry, Clem. Can we go sit and eat?"

Luke grins. He thought it was weird that she had just met these girls and they were already waiting on her, hand and foot.

"Wait, how bout you pretty girls come sit with us, huh?" Nate suggests.

Clementine looks at each of the girls. Sarah's face is bright red and she turns away to hide a smile, while Becca seems unfazed by the invitation.

"Alright fine." Clementine agrees. But as she sets her tray down next to Nate, he picks it up immediately and sets it down between him and Luke. "What the hell was that about?"

"I wanna sit next to Sarah. She's cute." Nate lies and Clementine gives him a suspicious look, but she buys it, sitting down next to Luke, sandwiching Nate between her and Sarah. Becca took a seat next to Russel.

Luke leans back and jabs Nate in the ribs. "What the fuck, man?" He mouths, but the only response he gets is an eyebrow waggle. He frowns deeply, but sits back up in his seat. He looks at Clementine, who is biting into her burger. He notices Nate trying to chat up Sarah, even though he doesn't actually have any interest in her, and Sarah eating it up, her eyes wide and bright. Across from them, Russel and Becca are chatting happily about her guitar and what bands they like. And then, there's Nick, who is quietly eating, but not really doing anything else.

He doesn't really know what to say to Clementine, so he doesn't say anything at all. Instead, he starts a conversation with Nick about the homecoming game, since he was a part of the team too.

"Speaking of homecoming," Nate says loudly, ending his conversation with Sarah and interrupting the conversation between Nick and Luke, "Do you all have dates? To that dance thing their doing beforehand? Ladies?"

Clementine doesn't even acknowledge his question, while Sarah shakes her head, her face red as a tomato. Becca shakes her head too, but she doesn't seem nearly as embarrassed about it.

"What about the guys at this table? Russ, Nick, Luke?" His brown eyes make contact with Luke's, and he looks between him and Clementine.

"Fuck off, Nate." Luke growls. He didn't understand why Nate was convinced that Luke was in love with her. He never said anything like that. _This is such a pain in the ass._

"I'm not even going to the fucking dance." Nick says, "That shit is so stupid. I'm bad at dancing anyways."

"I'm going," Russel says, "I just don't have a date yet. I'm not sure who I'm gonna ask yet. What about you, Nate. Since you wanna be all up in everybody's business."

Nate crosses him arms and leans back in his blue, plastic chair. "I don't have a date _yet_, but I will find one. And she'll be the prettiest girl in the school. But we all have two weeks until then, so hopefully y'all find yourselves some cutie pies to take with you. Maybe even one of the cutie pies here at this table."

He looks at Luke again, who is so close to punching him, that if Clementine wasn't between them, he would probably beat the hell out of him.

The lunch bell rings and students starts to disperse.

"Well, I had a great time here today. We would love it if you lovely ladies could join us again tomorrow?" Nate grins.

Sarah giggles, but Clementine and Becca look at each other with skepticism.

"Think about it and sit with us tomorrow. Sarah, would you allow me to walk you to class?" He holds his arm out to Sarah who reluctantly takes it, and they disappear into the crowd of students. Becca and Russel leave for their classes as well, not really walking together, but they picked up their conversation again.

Nick turns to talk to Luke, but notices him turn to Clementine. He frowns, picks up his backpack, and heads for his class without saying anything to his best friend.

"Sorry about Nate." Luke apologizes, scratching the back of his neck. "He's really-"

"An asshole? Yeah, I noticed." Clementine says, grinning at Luke, who grins back.

"You didn't have to sit with us, you know. I wouldn't have been offended if you had said 'no'."

"Uh, did you see Sarah's face. She lit up like a Christmas Tree. I think she likes Nate." She muses.

"Yeah, maybe. Becca and Russ seemed to hit it off too. Did you see that?"

Clementine nods, smiling, but stops. "I hope you guys aren't playing a prank on them. That would be really fucked up."

"What do you mean?" Luke asks, puzzled.

Clementine bites her lip before continuing, "It's just... I had a friend that liked this guy and he went out with her and stuff, but it was all a joke." She points a finger at Luke, "If I find out that it's a prank..."

Luke holds his hands in surrender. "It's not a prank, I don't think!"

Clementine grins. "You better hope it's not. Anyways, I gotta go, I don't wanna make a bad first impression on my next teacher."

She starts to walk away, but Luke falls in step next to her. "Mind if I walk you, or something?"

Clementine gives him a funny look, before conceding. "Sure, but only cause you know where it is and I'm still not sure. You didn't do a very good job as my tour guide."

Luke smiles, "Yeah, while, I was scared that you were gonna shoot me after I finished being useful."

She rolls her eyes, "Maybe I should have shot you, regardless."

"Maybe you should have," Luke agrees, "But then, who would have made lunch so painfully awkward for you? Bet you didn't think about that."

"I definitely should have shot you then." She laughs, and Luke can't help but notice how soft it is, despite how tough and cool she seemed.

And that's when Luke realized that she had already shot him, and there was nothing he could have done to stop it.

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**Don't forget to review! The next chapter will be better, I promise! **


	3. Us Against The World

**A/n: **This chapter is really short, but it's cute! (In my opinion!) No Luke this chapter, but I reveal the identity of Clementine's foster dad! (As if you guys didn't already know) Please, enjoy!

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"How was your first day of school, sweet pea?"

Clementine buckles herself into the passenger seat of the car. It still smelled like the kind of perfume that a woman would wear and it made Clementine's stomach turn, but the scent was easily masked by Lee's aftershave and cologne. "It was okay, I guess. Nothing special." She responds, pressing the power button for the radio as Lee pulls away from the school. He reached over and turned it down.

"Did you make any friends? How are the teachers?" He asks, prodding Clementine for answers.

"The teacher's are okay. I really like Miss Vigil, my calculus teacher, she's funny and really pretty. And _single_," She wiggles her eyebrows at her foster dad, but he rolls his eyes. "And I made some friends, Sarah and Becca. Sarah is kind of shy and nerdy and Becca is cool. She plays the guitar."

"That's a good start." Lee pauses, "Did any boys try to talk to you?"

"Lee..." Clementine whines, even though it sounds like a warning.

"Clem, I just want to know if I need to start sending you to school with a gun and a scalpel."

Clementine laughs. "Well, there is this guy. He was actually pretty funny, but he was kind of... dopey. He just showed me around the school. He name is Luke."

Lee frowns, shooting Clementine. "Now, sweet pea, I don't know if you should be talking to any boys right now. You just started this school. Maybe you should just hang out with Sarah and- uh- what's her name?"

"Becca." She responds, flatly.

"Yeah, Becca. They sound like nice girls."

"Lee, I didn't even tell you anything about them. What if they made me ditch class with them and smoke crack? I could be addicted to crack now because of them."

"As long as you smoked crack with girls and not stupid, horny boys, then I don't care." Lee grins.

"What if I was gay, Lee?"

"Are you gay?"

"Well, no."

"Then I don't care. Just don't get caught smoking crack by the police."

Clementine smiled, rolling her eyes. "I didn't smoke crack. Do I have your consent to smoke crack though?"

"Oh, hell no. You don't have my consent to start smoking crack, I was just giving you advice because you said you were addicted to crack. You need to pay attention, Clementine."

"Sorry, I'm having trouble concentrating. I'm just craving me some crack."

"You are a crack, Clem." Lee looks over at his foster daughter, smiling. "Oh, I have surprise for you, when we get home."

Clementine's eyes widen, "It's not actual crack, is it?"

"Well, I guess not. I take the whole surprise thing back. Do you know if drug dealers do refunds?" Lee asks, as he pulls into the driveway of their new home. "It's in your room, sweet pea."

Clementine pushes the car door open and runs to her room. Her eyes land on the object sitting on her bed and she approaches it gently, almost as though it will run away if she moves too quicky. She picks up the hat that Lee had placed on her bed. It had belonged to her biological dad, before he died. It was the one thing that Clementine wanted of her parents, but after they had died, the bank had seized the house and everything in it. She held the hat tightly and began to sob.

She feels Lee's hand on her back and she turns to hug him tightly. "Thank you, Lee. Thank you so, so much." She pulls away from him and places the hat on her head. Even though she's crying, her eyes are happy and the smile on her face is unfathomably ecstatic.

"You're welcome, sweet pea. I love you."

"I love you too, Lee."

"Come on, let's go to the backyard. I've got one more surprise for you."

Clementine smiles and follows Lee to the backyard. The grass is green, but starting to yellow and there are beautiful flowerbeds, but Clementine doesn't care because running excitedly up to the door is a dog with pale brown fur. Clementine gasps and kneels in front of the dog, hugging it, tightly. It wags its tail happily.

Lee leans against the frame of the door, "His name is Sam. He's a rescue."

"I love him!" Clementine squeals. "Oh, Lee. You made today so much better!"

"There's just one more thing," Lee adds.

Clementine looks at him, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't get me a car, did you? Because that would be too much. I would keep it, but it would be too much."

"No, I didn't get you a car. I'm just a history professor, Clem." He laughs, "I just thought, maybe, we could go shooting later. Just to celebrate our new life here."

Clementine nods enthusiastically. "That sounds awesome."

"I hope it stays awesome, Clem. I really do." His eyes lower, remembering everything that had happened that caused them to move; Lee's wife cheating on him and taking half of everything he owned, Lee being denied his request to legally adopt Clementine because of the divorce, and everything that happened at Clementine's old school.

"I think it will, Lee." The teenage responds, still hugging Sam, "It's me, you, and Sam against the world. They don't stand a chance."

Lee smiles, happy that his foster daughter was so optimistic. He hadn't seen her this happy in a long time and he hoped she stayed this happy for a long time.

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**I hope you guys liked it! Don't forget to review! Next chapter, there will be some definite Lukentine action~**


	4. Stupid

**A/n: **Cliches, this chapter is full of cliches! I hope you guys love them as much as I dooo! Thank you all for the amazing reviews~ Please, enjoy!

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It had been a week since Clementine came to school. She had enough time to fall into the normativty of school life by now. So, it would totally be okay if Luke decided to ask her out, right? Not out-out, just hanging out-out. That wouldn't be weird, would it?

He bit his lip and looked over at Clementine for the tenth time since class started. She was looking ahead at the white board attentively, actively jotting down notes. Yeah, he knew it was kinda weird that only a week had gone by and he was crushing hard on her, but he couldn't help it. There was just something about her.

"-uke. Luke... LUKE!"

Luke's mind snapped to attention. "Huh? Sorry, I missed what you were saying, Miss Vigil."

Miss Vigil smirked at her student. "Yeah, well maybe if you'd stopped _gawking_ at Clementine, you'd actually hear what I was saying." The rest of the class giggled, including Clementine, and Nick made a face at Luke. "Now, step up here and solve this equation."

Luke pushed himself out of his seat and walked up to the board, shooting a look at Clementine. She stares at him, locking eyes, and Luke can feel his insides twist, so he looks away, turning his attention to the whiteboard. He scribbles out his work and stepped back when he's satisfied.

Miss Vigil kind of frowns. "Sorry, Luke, but that's wrong. Who can tell me what he did wrong?"

Some random girl raises her hand and starts blabbing on and one about Luke's mistake, he's not paying attention. He looks over at Clementine again, for the twelveth time, but this time she's looking down at her notebook. He's almost mad at her. Her big amber eyes made him momentarily stupid.

The bell rings and Miss Vigil dismisses the class. Luke packs his stuff slowly, waiting for Clementine to finish talking to Miss Vigil. Apparently, the two became actual friends, to the point where Miss Vigil let Clementine call her by her first name. Luke thought that it was kind of weird, but whatever. He would wait around as long as he had to. Today was the day.

"Clementine, I think _someone_ is waiting for you." Miss Vigil grins. Luke stiffens, but doesn't say anything.

Clementine turns around, noticing Luke. "Oh, alright. Don't forget, dinner Friday night. You're gonna come, right, Carley?"

Miss Vigil (_Carley?_) shakes her head. "Don't make me change my mind. I'll go."

Clementine's eyes light up like it's Christmas. "Awesome." She turns around and walks to Luke. "Hey, what's up?"

Luke's voice feels like it's getting caught in his throat. "Nothing, I was just wondering if you'd like to- well, you know,"

She smiles at him, knowing what he's asking, but she doesn't answer him. She's making him stupid again.

"Forget it. Never mind." Luke walks away from Clementine, but she chases after him.

"Hey, what the hell? You're gonna seriously look at me all googly-eyed all through class, wait for me to finish talking to Carley, and then blow me off?" She sounds mad, but she's not actually mad. She was good at that. Maybe that's why Luke liked her so much. Maybe he was a type of masochist.

He didn't answer her though. He didn't want to risk opening his mouth and saying something dumb again. It was embarrassing.

"Luke? Hello?" Clementine was almost yelling, as she sped up, trying to keep up with Luke's pace. When he didn't answer her again, she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him. Luke was caught off guard by how strong she was.

"What?" He asks, irritated.

"What, me? What, you!" She crosses her arms and glares at Luke, "What the hell is your problem?"

Luke sighs, stepping back. He runs his hands through his hair. "You make me feel fucking stupid, okay? You make my brain turn to fucking mush and I can't stand it."

Clementine tilts her head to the side. "I don't understand. What did I do?"

He sighs again, "You didn't do anything. I'm just... I really like you, okay? I can't think around you."

Her eyes widen and she kind of frowns. "Luke, I don't... I mean, you're okay and all, but I don't even really know you that well. Like how could you feel that way-"

"I don't know, okay?" Luke interrupts, "I just do."

Clementine looks at the floor, shifting from one foot to the other. "I don't know how to process this. I'm not trying to be mean, but we hardly know each other. I can't just..."

Luke looks away too. "Yeah, I get it. I actually just meant to ask if you wanted to hang out today, or tomorrow, or something... I didn't mean to get all crazy with you. You just make me stupid."

Clementine looks up at him, "I don't think it's me that makes you stupid."

Luke laughs, "Maybe not."

She takes a slight pause, before continuing. "Hanging out today sounds good. My foster dad has some school meeting at the university today, so I don't have to be home until eight. If you still wanted to." She took pauses when she spoke, like she was clamming up. "Does that sound... okay?"

Luke looked up at Clementine, who was sporting the slightest of blushes on her cheeks. It wasn't a date, it wasn't romantic, but it would be just him and her, together. And that was more than enough.

"Yeah, that sounds great. Where do you wanna go?"

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**Thank you for reading, and remember: reviews and critiques make me a happy camper~ **


	5. Why I Can't Date You

**A/n: This chapter comes with a trigger warning for mentions of sexual assault. On another note, I just want you to know that I read and love the reviews you guys leave me! They make me so happy! So, even though this chapter is kind of dark, I do hope you enjoy.**

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"Luke, on your left!" Clementine cries out, squeezing the trigger on her gun.

Luke points his gun and shoots at the undead monster shambling towards him, but he misses and the monster attacks him, once, twice, three times and Luke is dead. Clementine gulps and points her gun at the monster that killed Luke, but she's quickly overcome with zombies. It's too late. Clementine is dead too. She lets out one last breath as big, red letters fill her vision.

Game Over

Insert 2 Coins To Continue

Clementine sighs and thrusts the plastic, red gun in the game's holster. "Your aim sucks, you know." She says, looking disappointingly at the arcade game's screen.

Luke shrugs, "I've never been good at these kinds of games. I'm more of a fighting game person. How bout some pizza?"

Clementine's eyes light up, "Yeah, sounds good. It's the least you could do, considering I was eaten by zombies thanks to you."

They walked from the arcade section of the pizza place to the dining area. It was really casual, and since it was a school day, it was nearly empty. There were only a few other people there, parents and their young kids, and a middle school couple.

"What do you want on the pizza?" Luke asks her, hoping she'd say anything but-

"Pineapple. I don't care what else is on it, as long as there are pineapple chunks." Clementine answers.

Luke crinkles his nose, but doesn't say anything about it. "What kind of soda?" He asks, hoping she says root beer. It was his favorite and he was really craving some right now.

Clementine bites her lip, thinking. She does that a lot, Luke has noticed, and it's become his favorite quirk about her. It was really cute and kind of... hot. Was that weird?

"Anything but root beer," She finally answers, "I hate root beer."

Luke nods, letting Clementine have her way. "How about you find us a nice booth while I order?" He suggests, and she nods.

When she's far enough away from him, Luke sighs, thinking about something Nick had said earlier, when Luke was waiting for Clementine outside of the school gates. He told Luke that he was already "pussy-whipped" by Clementine, because Luke had never hung out with a girl in a non-romantic way. But for Clementine, he had made an exception, without hesitation. He was starting to believe that maybe Nick was right. But Luke had come to the conclusion that he'd do whatever Clementine asked of him, with pleasure, because he'd want her to have anything she wanted. He wanted to do that for her. It was crazy, he thought, that he was so smitten with her already.

He ordered their pizza and a pitcher of soda, filling it with Pepsi. He took it to the booth Clementine had picked, at the far corner of the pizza parlor, and sat down across from her. As soon as his butt hit the plastic of the booth, Clementine decided to ambush him.

"Are you a virgin?" She asks, bluntly.

Luke's face becomes hot and he looks away. "I don't.. I mean, _technically_, yes. I haven't had sex. Not, like, actual sex."

Clementine raises an eyebrow, "Not actual sex? What, have you had, like, artificial sex before? With a robot?"

Luke pours himself a cup of soda, avoiding Clementine's gaze. "I mean, girls have... You know... Done things, with my... Like, hand things..."

Clementine bursts out laughing, "You're embarrassed over a handjob?"

"Hey, it was only, like, three times! And I don't hear you answering any of your own questions!" Luke yells, defensively.

Clementine leans back and crosses her arms, a mischievous smile splayed out on her lips. "I'm a virgin, in every way. No artificial sex for me." She wiggles her fingers at Luke, who is turning redder than a tomato. "Why are you so embarrassed?"

Luke looks at her, struggling to maintain eye contact, "It's just not cool, you know? All of my friends have had sex already, and I haven't. I guess, I just haven't found the right girl yet, or something." He fiddles with his cup on the table.

Clementine reaches out gently across the table and rubs his hand with her small thumb. It's not romantic, but it's still nice. Luke looks up at her and she's giving him the sweetest smile he's ever seen in his life. Something stirs in his lower stomach, but he tries to ignore it.

"I think it's cool that you haven't had sex yet, because you're not ready," Clementine says, her voice soft, "It's better than sleeping around with every girl in the school. Which you could do. I respect you for that."

Luke looks at her, and she's smiling, but there's also something about the way she's talking. Something sad, something... _hurt_.

He clears his throat, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Clementine pulls her hand away from Luke's, and places it on her lap. "Not really." She answers, "But, maybe, you should know."

Luke leans forward, preparing to take in everything Clementine was about to say. She looks at him with her big, amber eyes and Luke can feel his insides turn to mush already. But the way she's looking at him... There's a pain in her eyes.

"I had a boyfriend at my old school in Macon. His name was Ben," She begins, "And he was really nice, really sweet. I had only known him for a week before we started dating. After dating for a couple of months, he wanted to have sex with me. I said no, because I wasn't ready. We weren't ready, you know? Anyways, he got mad at me, but didn't dump me. Then, one day, in my locker, are..." She pauses, taking in a deep breath. "There were pictures he had taken with other girls, multiple girls, where they were both naked and doing it. There were so many pictures, so many girls. I mean, there was literally every girl in the school, except-"

"Except you." Luke finishes for her, and she nods.

"But then, after school, he grabbed me by my hair and threw me in the boys bathroom and ripped my clothes off. He didn't force me to have sex with him, but he took pictures of me. All of his friends were there, and when he handed the picture to one of the guys there, the guy then handed him a big wad of cash, I guess they had made a bet as to whether or not Ben could get me 's why Lee and I left Macon. Why I learned to shoot a gun." She looks up Luke through her eyelashes, "And why I can't date you."

Luke feels his heart drop into his stomach. He understood, of course, why she felt that way.

"I like you Luke," Clementine says, "I like you a lot. But I don't know if I can trust you yet." She shifts in her seat, "And I don't usually open up like this to people, Becca and Sarah don't even know, but I thought you should know. I don't want you thinking that I'm just some cold-hearted bitch that's turning you down for no reason. I really wanted you to know why we can't be together just yet."

Luke opens his mouth to say something, but one of the workers at the pizza parlor came by to deliver their pizza. Clementine wipes her face with her sleeve and grabs a slice of pizza scarfing it down like she's starving.

He just watches her. He want to hug her and hold her. He wants to tell her that he'd never do anything like that to her, that she'd be safe with him, but he knows that his words would mean nothing.

He would just have to show her.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! Don't forget to review and critique~ **


	6. Dinner

**A/n: Thank you guys for all the positive reviews! You make me so happy! I hope I'm doing this fic justice! This chapter kind of ups the drama, I hope you enjoy~ **

* * *

The doorbell rings and both Lee and Clementine perk up. He looks at his foster daughter with a confused expression.

"I wonder who that is?" Lee muses. He puts on a pair of red oven mitts and grabs the Parmesan chicken from the oven, placing it on the counter.

Clementine shrugs, and pops a cherry tomato from the salad bowl in her mouth, feigning ignorance. "I have no idea."

Lee looks at Clementine suspiciously, "Clementine, are you hiding something from me?"

She shakes her head, "No! But you should probably get the door before whoever it is leaves. That would be rude, you know."

Lee shakes his head, pulling off the oven mitts and white apron that he was wearing. While Lee was up answering the door, Clementine jumped up from her seat and grabbed the fancy china, placing it on the table. She grabs two of the nicest wine glasses they had and places them next to two of the three plates on the table. She hears talking from the front door and she speeds up the process, placing chicken Parmesan on each plate, next to a healthy amount of salad. Last of all, she grabs a bottle of wine from the wine rack Lee had on display, pouring some into each of the wine glasses, placing the bottle on the table.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Everett. I was under the impression that I was invited to have dinner." Carley walks into the room, her eyes landing on Clementine, who is sitting at the table with her hands folded neatly into her lap.

"Hi, Carley." Clementine grins, "I'm glad you could make it."

Lee walks in shortly after her. "Clementine, you didn't tell me you invited company over for dinner."

"Sure, I did. Just cause you didn't _listen_, doesn't mean I didn't say it." She grins at Lee condescendingly, who crosses his arms and looks at her sternly.

Carley shakes her head, "I'm sorry about this. I think I'm gonna go now." She turns to leave, but Lee shakes his head.

"You're already here, might as well stay. Besides, looks like dinner and refreshments have already been served. It would be a waste." He smiles at her, and she smiles back.

Clementine cheers internally. "How bout you sit here?" She suggests, pointing to the empty seat next to her. She set the table so that Lee and Carley would be facing each other, and she would be on the sidelines, making it easier to watch her matchmaking scheme come to life.

Lee tightens his lips, completely aware of what Clementine was doing. She notices and blinks her big eyes innocently at the pair of adults standing in front of her. Carley shakes her head, yet again, but complies, taking a seat in her designated spot, Lee following suit. They made awkward dinner conversation.

"Mr. Everett, this chicken is magnificent."

"Clementine, does Miss Vigil know that you were captain of the Mathletes at your old school?"

"Carley, don't you think Lee looks super handsome in his blue shirt?"

"Lee, don't you think Carley has the prettiest brown hair in the world?"

Lee looks at Carley, nodding slowly. "Miss Vigil, don't you think Clementine's nose looks extra big when she's sticking it in other people's love lives?"

Carley looks at Clementine, grinning as the younger girl clasps a hand over her nose. She grins, enjoying the new game of picking on Clementine. "I kind of see it. Speaking of other people's love lives, Mr. Everett, has Clementine told you about this boy named Luke?"

Clementine's eyes widen, and Lee, noticing this immediately jumps onto the topic, "Luke? I think she mentioned something about him last week."

"Oh? I heard that she spent all day Monday with him, after school, of course. Is that something you'd like to share with us, Clementine?"

"Yeah, care to explain, Clementine?" Lee asks, and Clementine sinks into her seat.

"No, not really. We were just... hanging out." She grumbles, her face turning red.

"Humph, from the way he looks at you, I'd think he'd wanna do more than just hang out." Carley snickers.

Lee's eyes widen and he points his fork at Clementine. "I told you, Clementine, I don't think you should be hanging out with boys right now."

Clementine looks at Lee with distress, "Lee, I swear we just went to the arcade! I mean, he does have a crush on me, but it's nothing! We're not dating! We're friends! Don't you trust me?"

The way she's looking at him, her eyes pleading for belief, Lee knows that she's telling the truth. "I do, Sweet Pea. I just want to make sure you're safe." He places his hand on top of Clementine's, who smiles at her foster father. Carley watches the exchange, feeling slightly guilty for causing the tension, even though it was only for a brief moment.

"May I be excused?" Clementine asks, "I'm tired and a certain calculus teacher is giving us a test tomorrow. I wanna make sure that I cram as much as I can in before then."

Lee nods at his foster daughter, excusing her for the night. Before she leaves the dining room, she shoots a glance at the couple sitting at the table. Carley is on her second glass of wine, Clementine noticed, and Lee has finally started drinking from his glass. _How weird,_ Clementine thought, _Lee said he wasn't gonna drink so that he could drive her home later._ Clementine shrugs it off and heads upstairs to her room, to study for her test.

* * *

Later in the night, Clementine gets up from her bed, her mouth feeling parched and dry. She slips on her bunny slippers and leaves her room, as quietly as she can, not wanting to wake Lee from the squeaking of the stairs. She walks into the kitchen, grabs a cup, and fills it with tap water. She gulps it down like she's dying of thirst.

As she rinses the cup out and places it in the dishwasher, she hears the creak of the stairs. Never, in her time with him, has Clementine ever heard of Lee getting up in the middle of the night, for anything. Alarmed, Clementine grabs a knife from the wooden block on the counter. She walks slowly to the base of the stairs.

When she thinks she sees the figure of the intruder close enough to her, she flips on the staircase light. She gasps and drops her knife.

Carley groans, covering her eyes from the light. Her pretty brown hair is unkempt, her lips are swollen, and her cheeks are flushed. She's carrying her shoes in her hands.

Clementine can feel her cheeks flush, knowing exactly what that meant. "Miss Vigil..." She says, not looking at her teacher, "Are you going home?"

Carley nods, "I have to." She answers, her voice thick with sleep.

"So, you're going to sleep with my foster dad and then take off in the middle of the night?" Clementine asks, still refusing to look at Carley.

Carley shakes her head, "It's not like that, Clementine." She opens her eyes and looks at the younger girl. "Look at me, please."

Clementine forces herself to look at Carley.

"Adult relationships are complicated," The older woman tried to explain, "And this isn't going to affect your schoolwork or anything, I promise."

"Well, I just want to know why you're leaving Lee in the middle of the night. Where do you have to go at three o'clock in the morning?"

Carley looks down, burying her face in her hands. "Clementine," she says, her voice shaking. Clementine can tell that Carley is still a little drunk from the wine she had earlier. "I swear I didn't mean to come her and sleep with him, but I have to leave."

"But why?"

Carley looks up at Clementine, guilt splayed out on her face, "Because, Clementine, I'm _engaged_."


	7. We Sure Are Cute For Two Ugly People

**A/n: **This is probably gonna be the last chapter for the next few days! I need to brainstorm and work on WTCWB! Also, MAY 13TH IS THE DAY EPISODE 3 COMES OUT! \(^.^)/ Yaaaaay! Anyways, I hope you enjoy this next chapter~

* * *

Sarah hugs Clementine as soon as she sees her Monday morning. Clementine is still uncomfortable with being hugged, but still awkwardly wraps her arms around Sarah. She still wasn't used to having such an affectionate friend.

"Good morning," Sarah greets Clementine, "Did you have a good weekend?"

Clementine shrugs, "Yeah, it was okay." She lies. Her entire weekend was spent at the house, trying to tell Lee that Carley was a no-good, dirty, rotten cheater-cheater pumpkin-eater. But as much as she wanted to rat Carley out, she couldn't bring herself to tell him. He seemed a lot more relaxed than usual and Clementine didn't want to take that from him. "How was yours?"

"It was pretty great. Becca came over again and we stood up late and watched movies. You know, you're always invited to join us." Sarah hints, and Clementine nods.

"Speaking of Becca, have you seen her today? We take the same bus in the morning, but she wasn't there." Clementine asks.

Sarah rolls her eyes, "Apparently, Russell picked her up and gave her a ride to school."

"Wow, are they together?"

Sarah rolls her eyes once again, "Pretty much. I mean, if Becca isn't hanging out with me after school, she's at Russell's."

Clementine purses her lips together. She didn't think it was a good idea for Becca to be with Russell all the time, but it was Becca's choice, she couldn't tell her what to do.

As the two girls walked to the quad area of the school, they began to hear someone strum a guitar and singing. No, it was two guitars in unison, and two people singing. A boy and a girl. They looked for the source of the music, and found a large crowd, surrounding the musical couple.

"Wanna check it out?" Clementine asks Sarah, her curiosity getting the best of her. Sarah nods and they walk over to the crowd. Standing to the side, in view of the couple, are Luke, Nick, and Nate. Luke waved the two girls over to where they stood.

"Hey," Luke greeted.

Clementine gave a small wave, standing next to him comfortably, while Sarah turned red and stood next to Clementine. They looked on, not surprised by the couple performing for the mob of students.

"I didn't know Russell played the guitar." Sarah commented, quietly.

"Yeah, apparently Becca's been giving him private lessons." Nick answered.

"In exchange for-" Nate began but Nick elbowed him in his solar-plexus.

"Shut the fuck up and listen. It's actually fucking cute, okay. You're ruining it." Nick growled. Clementine grins at the exchange, and how funny Nick sounded saying the word "cute".

In the center of the crowd, sitting on a slab of concrete, facing each other, sit Becca and Russell, strumming acoustic guitars. You would think that they'd be staring at the crowd, like the crowd was staring at them, but they were too engrossed in each other. It actually was really cute seeing them sing to each other.

_"I kiss you on the brain, in the shadow of the train, I kiss you all starry-eyed, my body swingin' side to side. I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else, but you."_

_"Here is the church and here is the steeple, we sure are cute for two ugly people. I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else, but you."_

When the song was over, the entire audience clapped vigorously. Becca and Russell leaned in to kiss each other and the crowed roared with cheers and applause.

"Will you go to homecoming with me?" Russell asks, and Becca nods her head with so much enthusiasm, Clementine is sure that it's going to fall off.

Sarah touches her cheek and sighs, "That was so cute." She swoons. "Do you think we'll get asked to homecoming?"

Clementine shrugs, uninterested in the whole idea, "I doubt it."

Sarah frowns, unhappy that Clementine had successfully and mercilessly popped her hope bubble. "Don't you want to go?"

Luke is turned away from the two girls, talking to his two remaining friends, but his ears perk up. He listens to Clementine's response, hoping to use it to his advantage. Of course, he was going to ask her to go to homecoming with him.

"Not really," Clementine answers, "I'm not into football."

"What about the dance?"

Clementine looks at Sarah and gestures to herself, "Do I look this the kind of girl that dances?" She smiles.

Sarah crosses her arms and pouts, "You look like the kind of girl that likes being a killjoy."

"I'm just being honest!" Clementine argues, "I'm not a killjoy!" She pauses, "Okay, how bout this, if no one asks us to homecoming, we go together?"

Sarah steps back and puts her hands up, "Clementine, are you... gay?"

"What? No, I'm not gay!" Clementine says, "As friends, you dope! Don't you think that if I was gay, I could pull a pretty girl than you?"

Sarah flips her short black hair, "I doubt you could find a girl prettier than me." She jokes, "So, I'll do you the favor and go with you to homecoming, if no one asks me." She and Clementine share a laugh. "But, seriously, if someone asked you, would you go?"

Clementine shrugs once again, being the perfect picture of apathy. "I guess so, wouldn't it be rude to say no?"

Sarah shakes her head, "Not if you don't wanna go. You should only say yes, if you actually want to go with that person."

Clementine nods, understanding. "It seems like you've been thinking about being asked out for a while." She muses.

The other girls blushes and looks down, "Well, every girl wants to get asked out." She mumbles.

"I don't."

Sarah rolls her eyes, "Every normal girl," She corrects herself.

Clementine grins at her friend. She liked Sarah for who she was, meek and shy, but she genuinely enjoyed the would-be-mean-if-they-weren't-actually-friends banter they sometimes exchanged.

* * *

Nate jabs Luke in his collarbone. "You hear that?" He says, "Your girl said she'd go. You better ask her before someone else does." He wiggles his eyebrows at Luke.

"You think she'd say yes?" Luke asks.

Nick rolls his eyes, "You sound like such a bitch, man. If she does say yes, do you think you'd have time to find the perfect dress? I think you should go with a sweetheart neckline, to compliment your tits."

"I sound like a bitch, says the guy talking about sweetheart necklines." Luke retorts, extracting a "Fuck you, man," from Nick.

"Fuck dude, might as well ask. The worst she could do is say no." Nate encourages.

"The worst she could do is shoot his damn face off." Nick snickers.

"That's true." Nate agrees.

Luke shoves Nate, walking past him. "Fuck you guys." He grins. Nate and Nick quickly catch up to him, walking on either side of him.

"So, are you gonna do it?" Nate asks.

"I might."

"How are you gonna ask?" Nate prods.

"Fuck, dude. I dunno," Luke stops and looks at both of his friends, "Do you guys have any ideas?"

* * *

**Do you guys have any suggestions on how Luke should ask Clementine? Because I actually don't~ Leave suggestions in the reviews? I'd sure appreciate it~**


	8. Rocks, Flowers, and Twisted Ankles

**A/n: **Thank you for all the suggestions! I used a couple in this chapter and I'm stashing away some idea that you guys gave me for later chapters, so please don't be upset if you don't see your idea yet! Thank you for all the reviews! I hope you enjoy the latest installment~

* * *

Luke stood outside Clementine's house anxiously, looking up at her window. He turns a pebble over and over in his hand.

He had a good- a great arm- actually. He was on the damn football team, of course his arm wouldn't be the problem. He wasn't sure what his problem was, but he was really anxious. But he wouldn't let that stop him. He takes a deep breath and pulls his arm back, throwing the pebble at the window.

It makes contact, but after a few minutes there's no response. He picks up another rock and throws it at the same window. This time, a light turns on and Luke feels his stomach lurch forward. A figure opens the window and looks outside. The figure was... _bulky_?

"Who the hell is throwing rocks at my window?" The figure roars.

Luke ducks behind a bush, hoping that the person, who he figured was Clementine's foster father, wouldn't see him. The man leans a little further out the window and Luke gets a better look at his face, recognizing it from a picture that Clementine had in her locker. The man isn't looking outside for too long before a pair of slender arms wrap around him and a topless brunette presses against his back, pulling him back inside. Luke realizes that the woman is, in fact, _Miss Vigil_, and when Lee is pulled inside and the lights go off, he decides to give up, go home, and pretend that he didn't see his math teacher's boobs.

* * *

"No way, you're telling me that Clementine's foster dad is banging Miss Vigil?" Nick asks in disbelief.

"Dude, I'm fucking serious." Luke groans, burying his head in his hands.

"You seen her tits, right? You said she wasn't wearing a shirt, didn't you? How were they?" Nate interrogates Luke, a perverse smile on his face.

Luke shakes his head, "I don't know, man. Fuck, they were okay. I don't know." He sighs, "That's not important, what's important is that I didn't ask Clementine like I wanted to."

"Well, I suggest you hurry, man. It's Tuesday, Homecoming is on Friday. You got today, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday, if you consistently fuck up, which you seem to be doing a lot lately." Nick says.

"Fuck, thanks so much for that, Nick. I had no fucking idea that I only three days to ask Clementine out. I'm so glad you reminded me."

Nick kicks his best friend in the shin. "Fuck you. I hope she turns you down."

"I hope you catch herpes."

"Only if your mom has 'em." Nick grins, and Luke returns his kick from earlier.

"Alright, how bout this, panty-dropper of an idea," Nate begins, "You get her flowers, roses or some shit, and take 'em to her house, then ask her."

Luke leans back in his chair and crosses his arms, "Dude, that's cliche as fuck."

"No, it's simple and sweet. You know how much tail I've gotten just because I bought some chick five dollars worth of flowers? A lot, is the answer. Like, an unbelievable amount of tail."

"I don't want tail," Luke admits, "I just want her to go to Homecoming with me."

"Then take her flowers," Nate advises, "It'll work, dude. Trust me."

Luke frowns, but he's out of ideas. He didn't want to do something so simple and boring, but it seemed like he had no other choice.

After school, he stops by the local flower shop owned by a very nice, Indian-American lady by the name of Sarita. "What kind of girl is she?" Sarita asks, in her pretty accent.

"She's... tough." Luke answers, hesitantly, "And very closed off, really mature, kind of mean."

Sarita gives Luke a worried smile, "Oh, she seems like a hard girl to love."

Luke feels his face flush, "We're actually not... a thing yet.. I mean, I hope to be, but-"

Sarita lifts her hand, understanding, "I got just the flowers for you." She leads him to the tulips section, plucking a couple of yellow ones and wrapping them in parchment paper.

"Yellow roses?" He asks.

"Yellow tulips," Sarita corrects, "They symbolize one being hopelessly in love."

Luke grabs the bouquet, muttering an objection. Sarita grins, waving him away when he pulls out his wallet to pay for the flowers. "Young love is priceless." She says, causing Luke to turn a deep, deep crimson.

He presses the doorbell and a light chime echoes through the house. He can hear some scuffling on the other side of the door, before it clicks, and is pulled open. Clementine greets him with a raised eyebrow, noticing the flowers that Luke was carrying.

Luke thrusts the bouquet into Clementine's arms. "Would you like to-"

Before he can finish asking his question, Clementine sneezes. He's so caught off-guard by how cute it is, he doesn't realize that she hasn't stopped sneezing since he gave her the flowers.

She pushes the flowers back into Luke's arms. Her nose is red and she has a dizzy look in her eyes. "What was that?" She asks, her voice thick.

Luke grips the bouquet, trying to hide the disappointment on his face. "You have allergies?"

Clementine nods, "I do. Is that why you're here, to set off my horrible allergies? Cause if so, good job."

He shakes his head, "I just wanted to ask you-"

Clementine sighs, cutting Luke off, "I'm really sorry, but could you come back another time? Lee wants me to help set up security cameras right now, someone was throwing rocks at his window last night and... I don't know, he wants to make sure he knows who it is, if whoever it was comes back. I kinda wanna get it done asap. Like, I'm not trying to be rude, but..."

Luke shakes his head, "No, no, I get it. Maybe some other time."

Clementine gives him a small smile, and nods, "Raincheck?"

"Raincheck."

* * *

Wednesday had come and gone, and Luke decided to use that day to actually conjure a fool-proof plan to ask Clementine out that wouldn't enrage her foster dad or set off her allergies. But he couldn't think of anything. Literally anything.

Maybe, he thought, it was best if he just didn't go to the dance. What did it matter anyways? As long as he was at the game, everything would be fine.

"You're such a baby, dude," Nick says, "You fuck up twice and then you quit? You didn't make the football team in Freshman or Sophomore year, but you made the fucking Varsity team when you tried out in Junior year. Just keep trying man." He runs back and makes a pass at Luke, who catches the football with ease.

"I don't know, man, I'm fucking exhausted already." Luke sighs, tossing the ball back and forth between his hands.

"This isn't your sewing circle, ladies! Stop gossiping and get back to practice!" Coach Randall roars at the boys.

Nick glares at the coach. The coach was always twice as hard on Pete as he was on anyone else, undoubtedly because even though every other boy knew him as Coach Randall; Nick knew him as Uncle Pete. And Uncle Pete always made sure that Nick was given the hard way in life, in every aspect, so that he would toughen up. Though it worked, there was always some sort of tension between the uncle and nephew.

"Pick it up, Luke," Coach Randall orders, "If you don't, I have one very eager _William Carver_ who is ready to take your place in a heartbeat."

A hot red anger surges in Luke and he throws the ball way too hard, and too far, causing Nick to run as fast as he possibly can. While Nick is running, Luke turns around to face the coach. "Seriously, Carver? He's a fucking dickhead. And he's not nearly as good as I am."

"Fuck you, Luke." Carver shouts from across the field, "I can toss a ball further than you any goddamn day of the week."

"Yeah, except for Friday, at the Homecoming game, where you'll be sitting in the bleachers, watching me play." Luke retorts.

"That's enough boys," Coach Randall says, focusing on Luke, "This is good, let that fire fuel you. You hold onto that ferocity, let it lead you through the game, and Stone Mountain High won't even know what hit 'em. Now, get back to practice. Push Nick, alright?"

Luke nods to the Coach, who walks away as Nick approaches. His breathing is hard, almost to a wheeze.

"In through the nose, out through the mouth, man." Luke says.

Nick heaves the football to Luke, "Shut up, man. Let me catch my breath, then you go long this time."

After taking a few deep breaths, Nick takes the football from Luke, and signals for him to go long. Luke runs backwards, waiting for Nick to throw it, when he notices someone walking onto the field. Of course, it's not just _anyone_ though, and as his crush enters his field of vision, everything else goes out of focus. The only thing that brings him out of it, is a sharp, searing pain radiating from his ankle and the hard impact between the ground and his butt. He lets out a deep, pained groan and he's immediately crowded by the rest of the team, with Coach Randall not far behind.

"What the hell happened, Luke?" The Coach bellows.

"I fucking twisted my ankle, Coach." He groans, squeezing the ankle in question.

"How bad is it? Think you can play tomorrow?" The Coach asks.

Luke wants to nod and assure him that not only will he play tomorrow, but tomorrow will be the best damn game he'd ever play. But his ankle was throbbing, and he decided it was best to be honest. "I don't know, Coach. I can try."

"Looks like I'm gonna be the new running back." Carver snickers and Luke is tempted to grab him by the ankle and just rip it off.

The Coach shakes his head exasperatedly, "Fuck. Go see the nurse, I don't like that you might not be able to play, but I'd rather your dumb ass be okay."

When the Coach turns around, he finally notices Clementine standing there, waiting for his attention. She hands him a note before starting to walk away.

"Hey, Miss," Coach Randall sighs, "Can you help my fucking idiot running back limp to the nurse's office?"

Clementine looks at Luke, who had been pulled into a standing position by Nick. He gives her a shy smile, and she rolls her eyes before acquiescing. She lets him wrap an arm around her shoulder and they walk slowly to the nurse's office.

"How did this happen?" Clementine asks as she helps him settle on the little cot in the office.

"Honestly?"

"No. Please, _lie to me._"

Luke looks at her, he kind of wanted to shake the sarcasm out of her body, but he also kinda wanted to kiss her. "I noticed you walking up and I forgot what I was doing."

Clementine doesn't say anything in response and, instead, looks away. She grabs the ice pack that the nurse gave her to place on Luke's ankle, and gently presses it against the injured area. "You're so stupid." She whispers.

The air is thick with tension in the nurse's office, but neither of them say anything for what feels like an eternity.

"You know, your pervert friend Nate asked Sarah to Homecoming." Clementine says.

"Did he?" Luke says, not really trying to hide how uninterested he was in the subject of Nate and Sarah.

Clementine bites her lip and Luke feels the familiar strain in his lower stomach as he watches her do so. He wanted to kiss her so fucking bad.

"In a not-weird way, do you wanna go with me?" Clementine asks, refusing to look at Luke, "I know you can't dance now or anything, but we could go and make fun of the people who are dancing."

Luke's eyes widen. Seriously? He spent all week stressing on how to ask her to Homecoming, only for her to ask him? All that anxiety, embarrassment, and failure for nothing? How was he supposed to respond to that? How was he supposed to feel about that?

He takes in a deep breath before answering her.

"I would love to."

* * *

**Thank you for reading! Don't forget to review! Everyone who reviews gets exactly two hearts full of love from me~ **


	9. Homecoming

**A/n: **There's some serious Lukentine action in this chapter! I hope you enjoy!

* * *

The ball flies through the air and there's a white hot tension through the stadium, like everyone is holding their breaths together.

The ball spins rapidly, the sign of a perfect pass, but would the pass be received as anticipated, or would the entire school hang their heads in shame? The running back reaches out with his arms, and his fingers come into contact with the ball. The stadium gasps, worried that he would fumble the ball, but those same agonized gasps became cheers, hoots, hollers, and straight out cries of sheer joy. The running back has caught the ball, and is running, running, running to the end zone, and he scores the winning touchdown.

The school fight song, _Glory, Glory_, (The same fight song as the University of Georgia) blares over the speakers and various game-goers starts screaming their lungs out, throwing confetti, and waving their obnoxiously big banners. Soon they begin to chant, "Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!"

The running back walks to the center of the football field and raises his hands to his helmet. He lifts it off of his head and the crowd goes even more wild.

Tonight, Luke had just won his team the homecoming game.

Tonight, he was king of the world.

* * *

"Now Clementine, I don't want any funny business going on." Lee says, pinning the top of Clementine's hair so that there was the smallest of bumps, just to add a little "wow" to her otherwise normal hair. His ex-wife used to force him to help her with her hair before she would go on her "business trips", so he was able to help Clementine look a little fancier tonight. Although, he didn't even really want her to go.

"Lee," Clementine squirmed, "It's just a dance."

"Yeah, and teen pregnancy is only a minor inconvenience."

"Lee! I. Am. Not. Going. To. Get. Pregnant!" Clementine nearly shouted.

"I sure hope not, Sweet Pea." Lee sighs, turning his foster daughter around so that he could spray some hairspray on her 'do. "You know I trust you."

"I know. I'm not going to let you down. It's just a dance, I promise. We're gonna eat some crappy food, dance to some crappy music, and watch some crappy people be crowned the crappiest in the whole school."

Lee smiles, "You're too young to be this cynical."

"You're too old-"

"Hey, now. I'm not too old for anything!" Lee interrupts her, and she laughs. "You look beautiful, Sweet Pea."

Clementine turns towards the bathroom mirror, checking herself out. The light purple material of the dress she was forced to wear contrasted her tanned skin perfectly, and the way the dress hung off of one shoulder, but not the other, made it so that the dress wasn't relying solely on her figure. Lee approved of the dress, for the most part, though he wasn't a big fan of how the bottom of the dress was kind of high above her knees. She wore a light purple eyeshadow, one that made the amber in her eyes more electric, a thin line of black eyeliner, mascara, a rose blush on her cheeks, and soft pink lipstick. She did look beautiful, but she didn't recognize herself.

The doorbell rang and Lee perked up. "That must be the man of the hour." He grumbled, and Clementine followed him to the front door.

Luke looked up at Lee with pure intimidation splayed out on his face. The older man looked down on Luke, smirking. "Are those for me?" He asked, referring to the corsets Luke held in his hands.

"Ah.. Well, I- I mean-" Luke stuttered. He didn't want to tell this big, muscular man no, for fear of being ripped in half.

"Lee," Clementine whined, and her foster father laughed.

"Alright, alright. Nice to meet you, son. I'm Lee Everett, Clementine's foster father." He holds out one of his hands, and Luke fumbles both the boxes of corsages, trying to shake Lee's hand. "Good Lord, son, how did you manage to win the game?"

"To be honest, sir, I feel a lot more nervous now than I was at the game." Luke gives him a half-smile.

"Do I scare you?" Lee asks, resulting in a sharp jab from Clementine.

"Shitless, sir." Luke responds, pulling a deep laugh from Lee.

"I like this young man, Clementine." Lee tells her, stepping to the side, allowing Luke to see her. His eyes go wide as he takes the entirety of Clementine in. He wants to burn the image into his mind for the rest of his life.

"Can we go now?" Clementine asks.

"No, Sweet Pea, he's gotta put the corsage on your wrist. Then I gotta snap some photos." Lee says, signaling Luke to do as he said.

They two stood at the door, posing for Lee, who had to keep reminding Luke to look at the camera and not Clementine. This went on for thirty minutes, before Lee let them leave.

"Be back before one, you hear?" Lee bellows and Clementine raises her fist in the air, letting him know that she heard him.

Luke runs to the side of his red pick up truck, opening the door for Clementine. He wanted to help her step inside the truck, but she gladly informed him that she was not handicapped. He closed the door for her, and entered his truck, turning the keys in the ignition.

"You ready to dance?" He asks her.

And she gives him a mischievous grin, "I think the real question is: Are you ready to be humiliated in front of the whole school because your date can't dance?"

The bass caused the entire auditorium to shake and the air was hot with sweat and heavy breathing. There was a large crowd of bodies pressing together dancing to the booming music. Luke lead Clementine to a table that Becca, Russel, Nate, and Sarah were already sitting at. Becca wore a canary yellow strapless dress that went down to her knees, and Sarah wore a sky blue, spaghetti strapped dress that went down to the back of her calves. They both looked stunning.

Luke and Clementine chatted happily with Sarah and Nate, trying to ignoring the awkward sounds of Becca and Russel swapping spit less than three feet away from them. Sarah's face was soon redder than a tomato, and she excused herself to the bathroom. Nate cast an irriated glance at his best friend, before heading to the refreshment table.

Luke took the moment to talk to his date directly, for the first time since they arrived.

"You look really good, Clementine." He says, and when she raises an eyebrow at him, he could feel his brain become mush, "I mean, you always look really good, like always. Even when you're in your gym clothes and all sweaty. That sounded creepy. Fuck."

Clementine grins, "Thank you. It feels so heavy, the make-up. I don't like it." She looks up at him through her lashes, then leans forward, curling her finger so that he'd lean closer, "Can I tell you a secret?"

Luke nods, trying to hide the shiver she just sent down his spine.

"You look really good in that suit." She whispers and Luke can't believe his ears.

_Was Clementine flirting with him?_

His suspicions are confirmed when she leans forward and kisses his cheek. Her lips are so soft against his skin and he feels like he's melted. It's the kiss that seals the deal for him, he knows that he's forever under her spell.

She grabs his hands and pulls him off of his chair. "Let's dance." And her follows her like a lovesick, lost puppy to the dance floor.

They don't dance like the other students, who legitimately look like their simulating some sort of weird sexual activity, but rather like to people with no rhythm moving their bodies to their own beat. They laughed a lot and Luke could swear that her laugh was the lightest, cutest thing in the world. At one point, Clementine unties her heels and throws them to their table. Luke enthusiastically connects the crook of their elbows when a country song comes on, forcing her to square dance. Clementine, in turn, took it upon herself to teach him how to do the Cha Cha Slide.

After a while, the ocean of student's dance moves started to slow down from all the high energy music, so the DJ decided to put on a slow song. Luke looked up at Clementine, who was kind of frowning to herself. He figured that she wouldn't want to dance to a song like this.

"Wanna sit this one out?" He asks her.

Clementine chews on her bottom lip, before answering. "No, let's keep dancing."

She steps towards Luke and lightly grabs his wrists and places his hands on her small waist, then wraps her arms around his neck. They move their bodies slowly, together, to the music. Clementine places her head against his chest, and Luke is scared that she'll feel his heart beat pounding against his chest so hard, his skin was liable to bruise.

When the song ends, Clementine steps back, away from Luke and walks towards the table, strapping her heels back onto her feet.

"I think it's time to go home." She says, refusing to look at Luke.

* * *

Luke walks Clementine up to her door, the silence between them painful.

"I had a good time, Clementine. I just thought you should know that." He says.

"Me too." She replies, looking up at him, "Even though you're a shit dancer."

"Said the girl who didn't know how to square dance." Luke snorts. He waits a moment before speaking again, "Would it be okay if I hugged you?"

Clementine nods.

Luke leans down, wrapping his arms against the smaller girl tightly. She smells like the sun and fresh-cut grass, and something.. sweet. He starts to pull away from, but before he gets too far, Clementine suddenly pulls his face to hers. She presses her soft lips against his for the briefest of seconds and he could swear that his heart has stopped.

Most people wouldn't count it as an actual kiss, but to Luke it was the only kiss in his entire life that had mattered.

* * *

**I hope it wasn't too soon! Please review, it gives me warm fuzzies inside~ **


	10. Lunch With Carver

**A/n: **Sorry for the super long update! But while I was gone, I noticed that Teenage Dream has hit over 50 reviews! Thank you guys so much! You're awesome! Also, I noticed some of you have been worried that I dropped this story because I haven't updated in a few days. Just know that I plan on giving this story a very long life and I have no plans of ending it any time soon! So, without any further ado, please enjoy this next chapter~

* * *

"Hey, little lady, what's your name?"

Clementine looked at the boy talking to her with suspicion. She had only seen him once, when she had to deliver that note to Coach Randall, but they had never spoken to each other. He was tall, taller than Luke, with a deep voice and hair that was a light brown. He had a look in his eyes that made Clementine uncomfortable.

"My name's Clementine," she answered, "Your's?"

He held out his hand, "William Carver. Would you like to join us for lunch?" He asks gesturing to the table full of students, the center seat was empty, presumably left for him.

"No thanks, my friends are probably waiting for me and I-"

"Who? Luke?" Carver asks, "No way, he probably doesn't even notice you're gone. Come on, just for today?"

Clementine frowns, looking back at the table she usually sat at with her group of friends. Nate was chatting at Sarah, who was looking down shyly at her tray of food. Russel and Becca were play fighting, smearing food on each other's faces. Luke and Nick were sitting across from each other, playing a game of cards, Rummy, it looked like.

"Alright, I guess."

Carver gives her a smile, before leading her to the empty chair, pulling it out so that she could sit down. The gesture made her uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything. Something about this guy seemed off, and she didn't really want to give him a reason to go off on her.

Carver turned to the person sitting next to Clementine, a bigger, black guy, who was talking to a pretty girl with curly hair. "Alvin, move. I'm gonna sit next to the new girl."

The guy, Alvin, glares at Carver. "Seriously, man? Fuck off."

Carver then pulls Alvin out of the chair, by the collar of his jacket. Everyone at the table jumps out of their seats. Carver kneels down and starts delivering blows to Alvin's face. The entire cafeteria is now watching in horror as Carver wails on poor Alvin.

"Bill! Bill, _stop_!" The pretty girl cries out.

Soon, a bunch of people are begging Carver to stop his relentless assault, but not a single person steps forward to do anything about it. The only thing louder than the cries and protest of watching students is the sounds of blows landing on Alvin's face.

Clementine bites her lip. She can't let this go on, Carver needs to be stopped. But he was bigger than her, stronger than her, and madder than her. But she couldn't let that stop her.

Carver lifts his fist to hit Alvin one more time, when Clementine rushes over, slamming her small body again Carver. The force sends the bigger guy back, off of Alvin's twitching body. The pretty girl runs over to Alvin, crying over him.

"Now, what'd you go and do that for?" Carver asks Clementine.

"Why'd you go and beat the shit out of him for?" She replies, struggling to understand how he managed to have so much gall.

"He needs to learn to respect me."

"You're not the fucking boss of him!" Clementine snarls, "You had no right to... to _attack_ him like that!"

Carver grins at Clementine. "I like you, you know that? You're so small, you have no strength, you're nobody, but here you are. Fighting on behalf of some jackass. You've got something in you, little lady. And I like it. You have a real good day now."

Before Clementine can reply, the school security team has finally shown up. They place Carver's hands in plastic zip ties and sit him down on their little golf-cart, before escorting him off of the premises.

Clementine turns around after Carver is out of sight and the rest of the student body has gone back to their respective cliques, as though nothing happened. She walks over to where Alvin lays, his head cradled in the pretty girl's lap. Kneeling down next to the girl, is Luke, who is talking to her with concern.

"What happened, Rebecca?" He asks the girl.

"I don't know," She sobs, "Bill told him to move so he could sit next to_ her_. When Alvin said no, Bill-" Rebecca looks up at Clementine, glaring at her. "This is all your fault!"

Luke looks up at Clementine and surprise fills his face. "You were gonna... Sit with them?" He asks.

"Well, he said... And you didn't look like..." Clementine shakes her head, "Never mind. How is he?"

"Fuck you, like you deserve to know." Rebecca hisses. She looks down at Alvin, brushing his hair with her fingers.

Clementine wants to tell this girl that if it wasn't for her, Carver would still be beating the shit out of him. For all she knew, Clementine had just saved his life.

"We'll leave you two, alright? You just take him to the nurse and keep me updated." Luke says, standing up.

Rebecca looks up at Luke, a soft look on her face. "Thank you, Luke." She pauses, "Listen, I'm sorry about everything. I shouldn't have gotten you involved-"

"Don't worry about it, Rebecca. Just take care of Alvin." Luke cuts her off. He looks over at Clementine, and motions to their table with his head. "You ready to go?"

Clementine nods, saying nothing, but taking one last look at Alvin. His face was swollen and discolored in multiple spots. His nose and bottom lip were bleeding and his right eye was swollen shut.

* * *

Luke doesn't lead Clementine to their table, instead, they leave the cafeteria and make their way into an empty hallway.

He leans against one of the walls. "Why were you with Carver?" He asks, his voice hard, like he was angry.

Clementine shrugs, "He invited me to sit with them. I didn't see what the problem was..."

"The problem is that he's a fucking mental case, Clementine!" Luke says, "He's fucking crazy! What if he did to you what he did to Alvin?"

"Well, he didn't okay?" Clementine yells back, "I'm fine!"

Luke places both of his hands on Clementine's shoulders. "You don't understand, Clem. He could have really hurt you. And I would have... I would have really hurt him."

Clementine glowers at Luke. "I don't need you to protect me, Luke. I can handle myself." She pauses, sensing a bigger issue here, "Why are you so mad? Is it because I was gonna eat with him instead of you?"

Luke doesn't answer for a moment. "No. Yes. Kind of."

Clementine scoffs, "Seriously?"

"It's not like that, Clem," Luke protests, "Carver hates me. I think he was trying to rouse me or something, you know? Cause he knows I like you. I mean, everyone knows."

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? He's going to use you to get to me. Like he might steal you away or something. I don't know." He looks away, like he's embarrassed. His faces is slightly flushed.

Clementine sighs. "You're an idiot. Like a huge idiot."

"What? How do you figu-"

Before he can continue his sentence, Clementine stands on her tip toes and smashes her lips against his lips. She puts her hands on either side of his face, and pulls him closer to her, to the point where there was no space between their bodies. They stay like that for a few seconds, before she pulls away from him.

He stares at her, dumbfounded. Their fight was the first time they'd interacted since their kiss on Homecoming night. And if he thought that kiss was great, this kiss just blew that one out of the water. This one was..._ Real._ Sincere. If there was any doubt in his mind that maybe Clementine didn't like him the way he liked her, they were all gone.

But she didn't say anything else. She just turned around and headed back inside the cafeteria.


	11. Adventures in Babysitting

**A/n: **Thank you for all the reviews! Here's a (kind of long) chapter, it's super cute and I hope you guys like reading it as much as I liked writing it! Enjoy and don't forget to review~

* * *

"Clementine, come down here please!"

Clementine sighed and got off of her laptop. It was a Friday night and after the Carver incident at school, all she wanted to do was relax for the weekend. At this point, relaxing for her meant staying in her room and avoiding all other life forms. Carley had been coming over nearly every night, Becca and Sarah were fighting (Sarah accused Becca of constantly blowing her off to hang out with Russel), and Luke was pestering her to hang out again.

She liked the guy, but holy crap. They were together at school all day, five days a week. She just needed some space.

"What's up, Lee?" She asked, trying to hide the slightly annoyed tone in her voice. Lee was standing in the dining room with a man he had met a week ago, Kenny, and his son. Both men were dressed nicely, though Kenny looked kind of uncomfortable.

"Hey, Sweet Pea," Lee greets her, "Kenny and I are gonna go out for a Man's Night."

Clementine nods, "Yeah, okay." Why was Lee telling her this? They went out once a week for their "Man's Night", this wasn't surprising. Why did he call her down?

Lee looks at Kenny expectantly, who scratches the back of his neck nervously. "Aw hell, Clem. Usually Katjaa keeps Duck with her when Lee and I go out, but she's not feeling very well tonight. Would you be willing to, you know, watch Duck for us? Just for the night, I swear! And I'll pay you!"

Clementine looks at said child, who was bouncing excitedly next to his father. He had that same dumb look on his face that he always had, and Clementine had to admit that she found him a little endearing. "You don't have to pay me," Clementine says, "Duck is a good kid, I doubt he'll be a handful. You guys just enjoy yourselves, alright?"

Kenny smiles and thanks Clementine profusely. He hands her a small black bag that has everything she would need: Duck's coloring books, crayons and markers, his reading books, his favorite Batman and Robin action figures, and his two men leave the house, promising to be home before sometime after two. Immediately after the two men leave, Duck approaches Clementine, tugging on the sleeve of her shirt.

"Clementine, can I watch TV and color?" He asks, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Sure, come on." She says, leading Duck to the living room. She clears the coffee table of Lee's National Geographic magazines and wipes away all of the coffee water rings, so that it didn't mess up Duck's books. "What do you wanna watch?"

"BATMAN!" Duck roars excitedly and Clementine obliges him, putting on old Batman cartoons for the child. She sets him up with his coloring books and various art supplies.

He sits with his knees tucked under him, scribbling enthusiastically, and looking up at the cartoons every once in a while to "Ooh" and "Aah" and the caped detective and his loyal sidekick. Clementine sits behind him, on the couch, watching the cartoons too. But she's actually not that into Batman, so she's becoming really bored really fast. After the first two episodes, Clementine decides that what she needs is a babysitting sidekick of her own.

"Will you be okay on your own for a couple minutes, Duck?" She asks, standing up off of the couch.

Duck turns around to face Clementine. "If I'm Batman, would you be Catwoman?"

Clementine is taken aback by the seemingly random question. "Uh, sure. I guess."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Duck gets up and gives Clementine a big hug around her waist before turning around and resuming his coloring. She shrugs it off and walks into the kitchen, pulling her phone out from her pocket. She calls the person who called her last.

"Hey Clem, what's up? You don't usually call me. Actually, you've never called me. Ever. Are you okay?" Luke asks from the other side of the line.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you wanna come over? Lee is gonna be gone for another six hours."

Luke is quiet on the other side of the line. "Your foster dad isn't home. It's just gonna be _me_ and _you?_"

"Pretty much. I mean there's-"

"I'll be right there!" He says, abruptly ending the call in the middle of Clementine's sentence.

Clementine shrugs it off and heads back into the living room, taking her spot back. Duck is humming along to the Batman theme song. They get about halfway through the episode when the doorbell rings.

She get's up to answer it and before she can give him a proper hello, Luke pulls her in for a deep kiss. He places his hand on the small of her back of her and pulls her body against his.

"Ahem."

Luke pulls away from Clementine and looks at the intruding child. The one who interrupted what was undoubtedly the hottest kiss in his life.

"I thought you said you were home alone." Luke says, not even trying to hide the disappointment in his voice.

"I said I was pretty much home alone," Clementine corrects him, "Lee and his friend went out for the night. They asked me to babysit. This is Duck."

Luke frowns but holds his hand out awkwardly to the child. Duck looks up at him with contempt, refusing to shake his hand. "I saw you. You were kissing Clementine."

"Yeah, well, Clementine is kind of my girlfriend."

"No, I'm not." She corrects him.

"I said, kind of." Luke pouts.

"No, Clementine is_ my_ girlfriend!" Duck bellows, stamping on Luke's foot before running away.

"What the hell?" Luke exclaims. Clementine laughs and he shoots her a glare. "That's not funny. Why does he think you're his girlfriend?"

"Oh, come on, Luke. He's a little kid." She grins, "How's your foot?"

"It's fine, the kid weighs like ten pounds." Luke leans forward, so that only Clementine could hear him. He didn't want Duck to assault him again. "I thought you were home alone. I thought you maybe wanted to... _You know_."

Clementine flushes, which catches Luke off-guard. "No. I don't want to do _that._ I just wanted your company and I thought you wanted mine. If you're just here cause you thought that I was gonna let you... Then you can just leave."

"No, no, no! I wanna stay here! I love spending time with my not-girlfriend." Luke insists.

He steps closer to Clementine to embrace her, but is smacked in the face with a wet sponge. Clementine laughs like a maniac.

"What the hell?"

"I am the hero that Clementine deserves!" Duck cries out from behind them, before running off once again.

"I _hate_ that kid." Luke says flatly.

"He's just having fun." Clementine says. She grabs his hand and leads him to the living room.

Batman is still playing on the TV and his coloring book is open, the page only half-colored. Luke picks up the book and examines the picture on the page.

"This kid loves Batman, huh?"

"Yeah. Earlier he asked me if he was Batman, if I could be Catwoman." Clementine grins, "It's really cute. He gets so excited about everything."

"You do know Catwoman is Batman's love interest, right? That's why he thinks you're his girlfriend."

"How do you know that?"

Luke puts the coloring book down and looks away. "I may or may not collect Batman comic books."

Clementine pulls him onto the couch and shoves him with her shoulder. "You're such a freaking nerd."

As Luke retorts, Duck climbs behind the couch and pulls on the waistband of Luke's underwear, giving him a mind wedgie.

"I'm Batman!" He cries out, running up the stairs.

Luke stands up and strategically fixes his underwear without taking off his pants. "I think you're gonna have to break it off with him, Miss Kyle." He grumbles.

"Who?"

"Miss Kyle. Selina Kyle? Catwoman's alter ego?"

"Fucking nerd." She grins.

"Clementine, I'm not going to lie. I'm scared that kid has a utility belt and a sidekick ready to kick my ass at any given moment." Luke says and Clementine can't tell if he's joking or not.

"Alright," She agrees, "But I'm not happy about it. It's gonna break his little kid heart."

"Break it to him gently." Luke suggests.

"Well, duh. What am I gonna say? 'Fuck off, kid, you're seven'?" She rolls her eyes and heads upstairs, looking for Duck.

She looks in the bathroom, noticing the box of saran wrap by the sink, but nothing out of the usual. She goes to Lee's study next, but the room is empty. Finally, she finds him sitting on her bed, flipping through one of the books she was able to grab from her old home. The one she shared with her parents.

"Hey, Duck," Clementine says softly, "Can I join you?"

Duck nods. "Who is Ed? And Diana?" He asks bluntly.

Clementine's eyes begin to sting, but she blinks the sensation away. "They're my parents. They gave me that book when I was about your age."

"I thought Lee was your dad though?" Duck says, confused.

"No, Lee is my foster dad. But he's pretty much my dad. I love him like he's my dad."

"But then who are they?"

"They're my parents, Duck." Clementine explains, "But they died two years year ago."

Duck is quiet for a moment. "So, you're like an_ orphan,_ huh?" He asks, finally.

The question hurts, but he's just a little kid. Clementine couldn't blame him for being to blunt. "Yeah, technically, I am."

"Batman is an orphan." Duck says, looking up at Clementine. "I think you should be Batman!" There's so much excitement and joy in his voice, Clementine can't help but smile back.

"Okay, I'll be Batman then. But who will you be? Catwoman?"

Duck shakes his head vigorously, "No way! I'll be your trusty sidekick, Dick Grayson! I mean, Robin!" He stands up and places his fists on his hip, taking a heroic stance. "That guy out there can be Catwoman. I don't care. Can we go solve some mysteries?"

Clementine stands up and nods. "Sure, but can you promise me one thing? Will you be nice to that guy out there? He's my friend."

As Duck nods, Luke lets out a loud groan from the bathroom. Duck begins to giggle and Clementine knows that he had everything to do with it.

"Duck," She says, "What did you do?"

"I put the clear wrap on the toilet so that when he goes pee, it'll get everywhere!"

She tries so hard to be mad, but she can't. She had to hand it to him, _Duck_ _Grayson_ was pretty damn funny.


	12. Passing Notes

**A/n: **I am so, so , so sorry that it's taken me so long to update! I promise to have another chapter out within the next 24 hours! Thank you guys again, for all of the reviews! I love you so much~ Oh, and if you were so inclined, you should follow me on Tumblr (here!) Bug me about updating and send me suggestions on what you would like me to put in this story! I love hearing your guys' ideas and I plan on implementing a few of them! Again thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Clementine grins at the stupid note written on the piece of notebook paper. Scrawled out, in his chicken scratch hand, Luke wrote:

**Do you like me? Circle one: Yes or No**

She looked back at him. He was looking down at his notebook, actually taking notes. She wouldn't tell him, but he looked so cute when he didn't think she was looking. Just in the way that he naturally did things without trying to impress her. It was so adorable.

She chews on the eraser end of her pencil before scrawling down her response, folding the note back up, and sending it along the Student Express towards Luke. When the note reached Nick, he tapped Luke on the shoulder, then handed him the note. Luke looked up at Clementine, who batted her eyelashes innocently. He waited until Miss Vigil had her back turned, to open up the note. It read:

**Do you ****like me** _think I'm a fucking nerd?_ Circle one: Yes or No

And, of course, she had circled 'Yes" three times.

But written in underneath Luke's altered question she had added:

_But you are __kind of__ cute._

99% of the time, Clementine was mean to Luke. She was always calling him a nerd, or an idiot, or some other insult, and he actually kind of liked it. But every once in a while (like right now), Clementine would flirt with Luke. He looked over at the object of his affections again. She was looking forward, but turned her head and winked at Luke, before paying attention to the teacher again.

Luke felt himself become goo. He couldn't believe how smitten he was with Clementine. They spent every lunch and break together, as well as Friday nights, babysitting Duck, who had kind of taken a liking to Luke. They had been this way for about four weeks. He felt the time was finally right. He was going to ask Clementine to finally be his girlfriend.

He ripped out a fresh piece of paper from his notebook and began scribbling out another note making sure that Miss Vigil didn't catch him. He caught himself looking up and stealing looks from Clementine. Her big, amber eyes drove him insane.

When Luke finished, he tapped Nick on the shoulder and gave the note to him. Nick gave him a disappointed a look.

"Dude, seriously? We're not in the fucking fifth grade." He growled.

"Man, could you just pass the damn note?"

Nick rolls his eyes, but takes the note. Before he passes it on, he shoots Luke a mischievous look.

"Don't you fucking-"

Nick unfolds the piece of paper and his eyes scan it hungrily. A crooked smile splays out across his face as he reads on, and every once in a while, he covers his mouth with one of his hands. When he's done reading the note, he folds it up and sends it on its way to Clementine.

"That was corny as fuck, dude. You need to grow a pair of balls, man."

"Hey, fuck you, man." is all Luke says in response.

Nick turns and faces the whiteboard. Every once in a while though, he had to stifle a laugh.

"Fuck you." Luke hisses every time it happens.

After what felt like forever, Clementine's response was finally making it's way to Luke. Nick grabs it from the girl next to him, and turns to give it to Luke, when Miss Vigil clears her throat, demanding the complete attention of the class. She walks over to the two boy's desks and places her hands on her hips.

"What's this?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh-"

"Notes," Luke answered swiftly, "Nick was just letting me copy his notes. I missed something and Nick was just letting me copy his notes. On that subject. That's not there. Because it's erased."

Nick nearly smacked himself in the face with his palm. Luke was literally the worst liar in the world.

Miss Vigil looks around the class, "What do you all think? Should I take this note and read it, just to make sure all the subject material is... _correct?"_

The entire class, excluding Luke, Nick, and Clementine, began to cheer and clap. Anything to prolong doing actual work.

Miss Vigil plucks the folded paper from Nick's hands and begins to unfold it, before stopping in the middle. "Actually, I think _Nick_ should read his notes out loud, don't you?"

Nick looks up at Miss Vigil in horror.

"Miss Vigil, that wouldn't make sense." Luke protests, "Most of Nick's notes are math problems that he solves using-"

"And I think he should read them to Luke, don't you guys think so? After all, the notes _are_ for him." She grins and the whole class is thoroughly riled up.

"Miss Vigil..." Nick whines. The teacher shakes her head and forces him to stand up, placing the note in his hands.

"Go on, now." Miss Vigil urges him, "Read it."

Nick groans. "Do I have to?"

"Yes." She answers sternly, "And maybe next time you'll re-think passing notes in my class. Turn and face Luke, make sure he knows that you're reading this to him."

Nick flushes but does as he's told. He glares at Luke, who just shrugs like it's no big deal. In this moment in time, Nick is sure that he hates Luke. He hates him for subjecting him to this humiliation.

"You may begin." Miss Vigil says.

Nick groans once more, before opening up the note. "I just wanted to let you know that I've really enjoyed spending time with you these past few weeks. They've been some of the greatest moments of my life. Not because we did anything extraordinary, but because I was with somebody extraordinary: You. You humble me. You've made me realize that I'm such a small person in such a big world. That we shouldn't take everything so seriously. That just because we can't dance, doesn't mean we shouldn't. You're so much smarter than I am. And as long as you keep looking at me with those big, pretty eyes of yours, you always will be smarter than me. I mean, you're kind of mean and that sucks, but I like that part about you too. And I know that you've been hurt before, but you know that I'd never do that to you. I just really, really like you. And I hope that you will give me the chance to make you like me too. In case you don't get what I'm saying, and you don't have to answer right now but, I'm asking if you... If you'll have me-" Nick pauses, looking like he's going to puke, "Miss Vigil, do I have to keep on going?"

"Damn it, Nick."

Nick swears under his breath, but continues, "I'm asking if you'll have me as your... your boyfriend." He ends the note flatly.

The entire class is laughing uncontrollably at Nick's "profession of love" to Luke. And even though Nick didn't write the note, obviously, he was still morbidly embarrassed.

"Is that all that's on the note?" Miss Vigil asks when the laughing dies down.

Nick remains silent, before answering her. "No. There's more." He really, really doesn't want to read the rest out loud. He had had enough torture for one day.

"Alright, alright," Miss Vigil plucks the note from Nick's hands, "Sit down, before you have a heart attack. Luke come up here and read the rest of the note."

Luke gets up and shakily grasps the paper. He didn't know what Clementine's response to the note was. He couldn't even look across the way at her, because Miss Vigil's body stood between where their eyes should've been able to meet. He looks down at the paper, letting the words come out of his mouth as soon as his eyes read them.

"I'd love to, you fucking nerd. P.S. I hope you get caught passing this note."

He looks up at Miss Vigil who is smiling. He can't tell if it's a mischievous smile or a sweet one. She gets up and walks back to the front of the room.

"Don't let me catch you passing notes in my class again." She warns.

But Luke isn't listening, because across the classroom sits Clementine with a biggest, devilish grin on her face and he feels as though he has become transcendent.

She was his girlfriend now.


	13. Hunger

**A/n: **Ohmygosh, we're so close to having 100 reviews, guys! Anyways, this chapter is kind of long and there's some adult-y stuff going on, so from now on, Teenage Dream is gonna be rated M, I hope no one minds. I wonder, would you guys be okay if (in the far, far future) this had some lemon in it? I haven't decided on that yet... On this last note, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Leave me your thoughts and opinions in the reviews section. Thank you, I love you~

* * *

As soon as Lee walked through the door, his nose was caressed with the incredibly delectable aroma of food. He walked into the kitchen and was delighted to see Clementine and Carley working together in the kitchen.

But then he became suspicious. Clementine was an incredibly independent young almost-adult and she never asked for help unless she absolutely needed it. Furthermore, she hardly ever cooked, unless... Unless she was trying to butter Lee up.

"That smells amazing," Lee comments carefully, embracing Carley from behind as she continues grating some cheese, "What's the occasion, girls?"

Carley gives an obliging look at Clementine, who bats her eyelashes at her foster father. "No occasion." She answers, but the tone in her voice suggests the opposite, "I just wanted to make my favorite foster dad his favorite foods for dinner."

"Clementine."

"What?" The teenager asks exasperatedly, "It's not just me, you know? Carley has some news too."

"Clementine!" Carley groans, putting the cheese down on the counter and giving the younger girl a slightly annoyed look.

Lee looks back and forth between his foster daughter and his lady friend. He was curious as to what Carley's news was, but when Clementine threw that "too" in, it confirmed his earlier suspicions. Something was up and whatever it was that Clementine was going to tell him, he knew he wouldn't be happy about it.

Before he could ask Clementine what it was, Carley grabbed Lee by his wrist and lead him upstairs. "Clementine, you'll be okay with that much cheese right? It's just to stuff the mushrooms." She asks as they walked away.

"Yeah, yeah." Clementine responds dismissively, checking on the rice in the rice cooker.

Carley leads Lee into his room, closing the door behind them, then pushing him onto the bed. He's laying down as she crawls over him, a wicked smile on her face. She leans down and kisses his collarbone softly, moving her lips higher and higher until she reaches his ear. She then kisses him along his jawline, before finally placing her lips on his. Lee puts his hands on Carley's narrow hips and pulls her body into his, deepening her kiss. She throws her head back and gives out a small squeal. Lee loved that noise so much, he repeated the action just so that Carley would do it again. This time though, she lifts her chest off of Lee's, and sits up.

"We should stop now," She grins, "There will plenty of time for this later." She curls her finger, motioning for Lee to sit up and face her, which he does.

"Will there now?" He asks before sliding his hands up her shirt, feeling the soft skin of her stomach.

Carley nods slowly, gently pulling his hands out of her shirt. "Oh yes." She looks at Lee, intently, but doesn't say anything for a while.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Lee asks, raising an eyebrow.

Carley lifts her hands and places them on either side of Lee's face. She leans forward and kisses him slowly, but deeply. When she pulls away, she finally decides that's the perfect moment to announce her big news.

"Doug and I called off the engagement."

Lee blinks a couple of times, his brain trying to register the news. "You... you did?"

Carley nods, her face glowing with pure happiness. "Yeah, we did. We weren't happy together, you know. But you..." She looks down in a rare display of timidity, "You make me happy, Lee. I love you."

Lee doesn't know how to respond, he's at a loss for words. He just wraps his arms around Carley and pulls her to him, capturing her lips in another kiss, and falling backwards onto the bed. They try to fight their smiles as they kiss, but they can't. Before they know it, most of their clothes are on the floor.

"Maybe we should stop," Lee suggests, "You said there would be time later."

Carley nods her head, as she rears up onto her knees and begins to unlatch her bra. "Yeah, but that was earlier," She responds breathlessly, "Right now is _technically_ later."

Lee grins, "I suppose you're right,"

* * *

Clementine grabs four plates, four salad bowls, and four sets of silverware, placing them on the table where the four of them were going to sit. The four of them being herself, Lee, Carley, and Luke. Tonight was the night that she was going to tell Lee that she and Luke had officially started dating. They, of course, have only been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few days, but Clementine didn't want Lee to feel like she had been harboring a secret. She wanted Lee to know sooner rather than later.

After the table was set up with plates, forks, knives, glasses, and the food on the table, she ran upstairs to take a quick shower. She didn't really care if she was sweaty or dirty if Luke was around, and vice versa, but she smelled like caramelized onions and cheese, which wasn't a pleasant mix of smells. Especially since she personally hated onions. She hops out of the shower and quickly examines herself in the mirror. Her hair was getting long, she noted, and she momentarily debated cutting it, but decided to save that for another time. She dries herself off quickly before wrapping the towel around herself and running to her room.

Dinner was supposed to be nice, and special, so she decided to wear clothes that she would normally never wear. She digs a purple, floral skirt out from the back of her closet and a white shirt with sleeves that went almost to her elbows. It took her a moment to get used to the feel of the skirt, but she eventually got it. She slipped on a pair of purple flats and ran back to the bathroom to brush her hair and tie it into two long ponytails.

When she was finally finished getting ready, she ran back downstairs to the dining room. She passed Lee and Carley who were sitting on the couch in the living room, watching some random sitcom. They both had a slight flush on their cheeks and Clementine knew what that meant, and she tried not to be upset about it. Carley had told Clementine about her breaking up with her fiance, so that she could be with Lee, before Lee came home. She, apparently, wanted Clementine to feel more comfortable with her, and Clementine had to give her points for trying.

Clementine has just finished serving dinner when she hears the doorbell ring. She takes in a deep breath and tries to calm herself down. She walks over to the door that surely, Lee's answered by now.

And, of course, she assumed correctly. When she approaches Lee, his large figure is blocking Clementine from seeing the person on the other side of the door. Not that she needed to see who it was to know that it was Luke.

"Those are lovely, are they for me?" Lee asks.

"Uh, no. But, uh, you can have 'em if you want 'em, I totally forgot that Clem has allergies." Luke responds, his voice shaking.

"Well, I'll take 'em off your hands, boy," Lee grabs the bouquet of flowers from Luke, "Thank you, I'll make sure Clementine gets them. You have a nice day now."

"Wait- No! Clementine invited me to di-"

Lee closed the door, cutting off the middle of Luke's protest. When he turned around, however, he was face-to-face with a fierce-looking Clementine.

"Lee, that was rude." Clementine says, crossing her arms.

"No," Lee disagrees, "Rude is inviting him to dinner without asking me."

"That's not rude." Clementine pouts quietly. She looks up at Lee, making that face she made when she really wanted something. Her eyes were glistening with fake tears and she stuck out her bottom lip. She was almost seventeen years old, but it was still effective.

"Fine." Lee concedes, turning around and opening the door. Luke is still standing there, ashen face, and stunned. "Come on in, boy." Lee says, before heading to the dining room.

Luke looks nervously at Clementine, who nods at him, before stepping inside the house. "I brought flowers for you, but your dad wanted them, so... I gave them to him." He pauses before leaning closer to Clementine, "He's really scary, Clem."

Clementine grins, "No, he's not. Not to me, at least."

Luke reaches for her hand and she lets him lace his fingers between her's. "Well, to me, he's terrifying."

Clementine leads Luke to the dining room where Lee and Carley are already seated, waiting for the young couple to arrive so they could eat. Clementine takes the seat next to Luke and Lee moves his seat so that he was facing Luke.

Luke looks down at his plates and gulps nervously. "Thank you, Mr. Everett, the food looks delicious."

"Actually Clementine and Carley cooked it." Lee informs him.

Luke looks at Clementine with disbelief. "You cooked this?"

Clementine nods, "Yep. I sure did."

Luke puts his fork down. "Maybe I shouldn't eat it then. I don't want to get sick."

Lee lets out a hearty chuckle and Clementine punches Luke's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Luke. I made sure she cooked everything thoroughly. You shouldn't get sick." Carley assures him, forcing him to acknowledge her presence.

He nods, "Thank you, Miss Vigil. I, uh, I appreciate you making sure no one gets sick from Clementine's cooking."

"What makes you think I'm a bad cook? What did I do to make you think that?" Clementine asks.

"I don't know, it just seems more believable than you being a good cook." Luke shrugs, picking up his fork and steak knife. He cuts a piece of steak and the entire table is watching him in anticipation. He puts the piece of meat in his mouth and chews, before leaning to the empty side of the table and gagging.

"What?" Clementine asks, confusedly, "What's wrong? I followed the directions perfectly!"

Luke sits back up and grins at Clementine. "I'm just kidding, it's actually really good."

Clementine punches him again. "You jerk, I thought I actually made you sick."

The other two adults, relieved that Clementine's food wasn't poisonous, began eating. Lee and Luke talked about football season and how a clip of the winning touchdown from the Homecoming game was on the local news. Lee told Luke how he had wanted to try out for football when he was in high school, but he was too intimidated. Luke told him that he was probably too nerdy to make the team anyways and Lee actually laughed, agreeing. They then talked about potential colleges, and Lee made sure that if Luke wanted to attend GSU Athens, then he could definitely pull some strings in Admissions.

Clementine didn't speak much at all. She didn't feel that Luke needed her to talk him up and look good for Lee. Her foster dad was an excellent judge of character. He would see that Luke was a really funny, earnest, charming guy on his own.

_The hardest thing for Luke was getting me to like him_, Clementine thought, grinning, _everything else should be cake_.

* * *

At the end of the dinner, Lee stood up from his chair and began to take everyone's dishes to wash, when Luke snatched the plates right from his hands. "I got it, Mr. Everett." He insisted, smiling at Lee.

"Hm, alright. You sure?" Lee asks.

Luke nods eagerly, "Of course. It's the least I could do, I was, apparently, not even invited, so dishes are a small price to pay for dinner."

Lee looks at Luke, searching for a hint of something, anything, bad that would make him question Luke's integrity. "Okay, thank you, young man."

Luke nods at Lee, before the older man and Carley exit the dining room, closing the door, and heading for the family room. Luke continues picking up the plates and utensils from the table, while Clementine turns on the sink and lets it fill with soapy water. Luke then takes the dishes to the sink and sets them in the water.

"I wash you rinse and put them in the dishwasher?" He asks, and Clementine agrees. As they wash, they talk.

"So, what did you think?" Clementine asks.

"About..?"

"Lee, dumbass! That's the whole reason why you're here."

"Oh, yeah. I like him, he's a good guy. He loves you a lot, I can tell. He looks at you like you're the apple of his eye, you know? Do you think he liked me?"

"I hope so. If he didn't, I'd _have to_ break up with you." Clementine says, looking sideways at Luke.

"Is that so?"

Clementine nods and Luke takes his hands out of the soapy water, shaking the water off his hands. He picks up Clementine by her waist and places her on the counter. He then wiggles his fingers and before she can protest, he's tickling her all over her exposed skin, from her ankles to the middle of her thighs, from her collarbone to the small patch of skin behind her ears. She wiggles and jerks, trying to escape his clutches, but her attempts are in vain. She's laughing so hard, tears are starting to form in her eyes.

"Luke, stop. Stop!" Clementine cries out breathlessly.

Luke pulls away, but leaves his hands on her thighs. "Are you sorry?"

"I'm gonna make _you_ sorry." She retorts, pulling his face to her's and kissing him deeply. He begins to pull away, because their previous kisses had only lasted for so long, but this time, Clementine keeps him close, and there was no way Luke was going to fight her. She reaches down and runs the tip of her fingers under the hem of his shirt, touching his solid body underneath, raking her nails across his skin. He gasps and she captures his lips once again, pulling him so close to her that it made her chest hurt. He lets out a low growl and, for the first time in her life, Clementine felt something stir deep in her tummy. It was an unfamiliar _hunger._

"You're driving me crazy." Luke says fervently.

"Good," Clementine whispers, pulling away from him. "Cause that's all you're getting for a long, _long_ time."

She hops off the counter top and pushes him to his side of the sink with her hips. He shakes his head, trying to get his mind straight again, before doing anything else. They finish up the last bit of dishes and Luke takes a seat at the dinner table.

"You don't want to join Lee and Carley in the living room? I figured we could watch a movie before you go." Clementine suggests.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute." Luke answers, placing his forehead on the table.

"Well, I don't want to keep them waiting, Luke. Don't be rude." Clementine says irately.

"Clementine... I can't go yet."

"Why not?"

Luke lifts his head and looks at her pleadingly. When they make eye contact he looks down at his lap and Clementine's eyes follow and...

_Oh..._

She covers her mouth with her hands and struggles to hold back a laugh. "That's hilarious."

"No, it's not!" Luke protests, "It sucks. It just won't go away. I keep trying to think of anything else. But... Oh. No. There it goes. I think we're good."

"Little Luke down?" Clementine asks, her only response was a dirty look.

"If you must know..." Luke begins, and he's promptly cut off by Clementine.

"I mustn't know," She says, "I'll find out when the time's right. _Maybe_."

"You're going to make the situation worse." Luke grins and she walks over and punches him in the arm for a third time.

"Shut up. Let's go watch a movie."

* * *

Clementine gives Luke a small, chaste kiss at the door. They say their good-byes and Clementine closes the door behind him.

"So, what did you think?" She asks her foster father.

"I like him, he's an alright kid." Lee nods approvingly, "He seems smart, but he hides it well. He's also crazy about you."

"So, you _approve?_"

Lee smiles mischievously, "Now Clementine, I've gotta tell you. I've got really high standards for anyone that might wanna date you, I'm afraid no boy will ever meet those standards. But Luke? He's probably the closest anyone will ever get."

"Thank you, Lee." She smiles at him and he pulls her in for a hug.

"I love you, sweet pea. You be safe now, you hear?"

Clementine pulls away from him and looks at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"These walls are thin, Clementine." Lee says with a hint of teasing in his voice, "We could hear you perfectly in the kitchen."

"No kidding?" She retorts, "Now you know how _I_ feel when Carley comes over."

Lee's face flushes, "Off to bed with you, young lady."

Clementine rolls her eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

She walks up the stairs, making her way to her room, closing the door behind her, and flopping on the bed. Her mind races back to the moment in the kitchen. She's never felt anything like that before and it kind of startled her. She did like it, but she decided that it would be a long, long time before she would let herself feel that hunger again.


	14. Waste Some Time With You

**A/n: **Hi all! Unfortunately, there's no Cluke in this chapter. However, I love Clementine and Sarah's friendship so much, so that's what this chapter is. I hope you all don't mind. I was listening to Blue and Yellow by The Used when I was writing this and if you listen to that while reading this chapter, I think it'd really help set the mood. Anyways, I hope you enjoy~

* * *

"Hey Sarah," Clementine answers her phone, her voice thick with sleep, "Did you know it's 3:17 in the morning? I should be sleeping."

"Clementine, my dad is in the hospital!" Sarah sobs into the phone.

"Sarah, your dad is a doctor. He's always at the hospital."

"Damn it, Clementine, he's in the hospital as a patient."

Clementine takes in a deep breath and opens her eyes. She didn't have much tact when it came to serious situations like this, so she tried to choose her words carefully. "He's not... Like, he's alive, right? As in not dead?"

"The doctor working on him says that his condition isn't stable. I don't know what's going to happen to him."

Clementine reaches over and pulls the cord to her lamp, illuminating her room. She gets up, puts on a bra, and pulls on a pair of jeans. "What's wrong? Why is he in the hospital in the first place?"

"He was on his way home from work and some drunk driver crashed into him, going almost 90. The other guy died. He died, Clementine."

"Oh, shit. Okay, where are you at?"

"I'm at the hospital in the waiting room of the OR." Sarah answers, her sobbing finally subsided, but she sounded weak and tired.

"I'm going over there then. I'll borrow Lee's car. Sit tight." Clementine says.

The girls say their goodbyes. Clementine throws on a pair of shoes and walks to the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face to wake herself up. If she was going to do this, she needed to be as awake as possible. She then walks quietly over to Lee's room, opening the door slowly so that it wouldn't make that hellish creaking sound. She tiptoes over to Lee's nightstand, making sure she didn't disturb Lee or Carley's sleeping forms, and opens the drawer fishing around for his car keys. Her fingers wrap around the metal keys and she breaths a sigh of relief. She closes the drawer with a loud enough bang and she hears Carley gasp. The woman lifts her head and her eyes focus on Clementine's ominous figure, illuminated by the darkness.

"Clementine, what are you doing?" She whispers harshly.

"Please, don't say anything," Clementine pleads, "I need to go."

Carley looks at Clementine worried. "Is everything okay?"

The younger girls shakes her head, "Sarah needs me. I have to take Lee's car. You can tell him I took it, but please don't let him stop me."

Carley looks down at Lee's sleeping body, before nodding. "Okay. Just go before he wakes up."

Clementine thanks Carley profusely before leaving for the hospital. She had her permit, but she technically wasn't supposed to without a legal adult in the car or between the hours of 11 P.M. to 6 A.M. But she couldn't let the law keep her from going to Sarah when she needed her. Sarah was her best friend and she was suffering. Clementine wouldn't let her go through it alone.

* * *

Sarah runs to Clementine when she walks through the doors of the OR and hugs her tightly. When she pulls away, Clementine notices that her eyes are puffy and red and her cheeks are tear-streaked. Her black-blue hair is unkempt and tied into a sloppy pony tail and she's wearing her pajamas.

"How did you get here?" Clementine asks as they sit down in the uncomfortable metal chairs.

"I ran." Sarah answers solemnly.

Clementine shakes her head, "I'm sorry. Have you gotten any updates?"

"Yeah," Sarah nods, "They've managed to stabilize his breathing and they've done surgery, sealing up his wounds and stuff. He sustained major... Um, cranial damage. There was a lot of bleeding."

The way she speaks seems like she's majorly sleep pauses a lot and has to think about her words before she says them. Clementine doesn't know what to do, so she just wraps her arms around her friend. Sarah touches Clementine's arms with her shaking hands and leans into her. They're both unaware that they've fallen asleep until they're woken up by a doctor.

"You're Sarah, right?" The doctor asks, and Sarah nods her head, "Well, we have good news and bad news. The good news is that your father is okay, he's breathing and his wounds are healing amazingly well. He will live."

Sarah's eyes light up, "Oh, great! Can he go home now?"

The doctor takes a seat in an empty chair next to Sarah and both girls know that the news he's about to deliver is going to be devastating. Clementine takes Sarah's trembling hand in her's and she squeezes it reassuringly.

"Sarah, the damage your father took to his brain, while not fatal, was still substantial. He didn't suffer any real brain damage, but, and forgive me for being blunt, he's currently comatose. We don't know when he'll wake up, if he wakes up."

Sarah turns to Clementine and sobs into her shoulder. Clementine strokes her friend's back. The doctor looks on, not saying anything, the look in his face giving way to no emotion. Clementine wonders how many times he's had to deliver this kind of news for it to no longer phase him.

"Do you have anyone you can stay with until further notice?"

Sarah bites her lip. Only a few people, including Clementine, knew that her mother had left her father a long time ago and her entire maternal family pretty much disowned Carlos and Sarah. The only family she had on her father's side were her grandparents, who were elderly and barely capable to take care of themselves, much less a teenage girl.

"She can stay with me," Clementine offers, "We go to the same school and my foster dad won't mind at all."

Sarah looks at Clementine like she's an angel and the doctor nods approvingly. "Okay, well, leave your number with the receptionist. We'll let you know if he wakes up. In the meantime, we're going to transfer him into a different room. Feel free to visit him anytime, any day."

Sarah nods, "Okay, thank you."

The doctor leaves the girls and Sarah has to sign some legal documents, being Carlos's only living, capable relative. She leaves the hospital her number and they two girls leave, heading for Lee's car. The sun is barely starting to rise, making Clementine wonder what time it is. She reaches into her pocket and checks her phone. There are about 20 missed calls and texts from Lee, and 2 texts from Luke. They're both wondering where she is. She sighs, glad that Carley kept her secret.

"Clem, I don't want to go to school." Sarah admits, "I can't deal with school and this at the same time."

Clementine puts the key in the ignition and starts the car. "Yeah, I get it. Wanna... Wanna ditch?"

Sarah looks at Clementine with wide eyes. She's never ditched school before, she's always had perfect attendance. "But... We can't ditch school."

Clementine gives Sarah a wolfish smile, "Yeah, we can. Watch."

She pulls out of the parking spot and drives.. Well, she doesn't know where. She gets on the I-16 heading east. Sarah sits on the passenger side, her tapping her fingers on her thighs, her whole body reacting jittery. She doesn't ask Clementine where they're headed. She falls asleep anyways, as she watched the cars pass them.

* * *

After three hours of driving, Clementine parks her car in a lot and shakes her sleeping friend awake. Sarah's eyes flutter open and for a moment, she's forgotten about her father.

"Where are we?" She asks, looking around.

"Savannah," Clementine answers, she tries to sound happy, "I used to come here a lot with my parents when I was small. It's nothing but good memories here."

Sarah wants to ask Clementine something, but she decides not to. The girls leave their car and walk down the street for a little while, before happening among a beach. It was relatively empty, except for a few tourists. They sat down on the sand, taking off their shoes, and letting the ebbing and flowing waves tickle their toes. They talked about everything and nothing.

Sarah told Clementine that after she and Luke had made it official, Nate decided that their flirtation was over. She was glad though, because Nate was starting to push her into doing things she didn't want to do. Plus, to be honest, Sarah didn't even like Nate like that. She had no idea why she went along with it in the first place. Clementine had recounted Luke's first dinner at the Everett household and how hilarious it was when Luke couldn't immediately go out and watch a movie with them. Sarah had never laughed so hard in her life.

"Can I confess something to you, Clementine?" Sarah asks, suddenly serious.

"Sure."

Sarah looks forward, towards the ocean. She had been wanting to tell Clementine this for a while, but she just couldn't. "I used to have a thing for Luke. Like, a big thing."

"Oh?"

Sarah buries her head in her arms, "I know, it's so embarrassing, but I don't feel that way anymore, of course. But I used to resent that he was so obviously into you. I didn't like you for a while, but... I don't know, it's not your fault he feels that way, you know? And he seems so happy now and you're... Well, you're not nicer, but you've opened up more. And you're my best friend now, I can't help but.. Be happy for you, I guess. I wanted to apologize though, for being angry and jealous of you. It's so stupid and petty."

Clementine smiles at her friend, "No, don't be. It's okay. I didn't know and I'd have never known. I'm sorry for being ignorant of your feelings."

Sarah holds out her pinky, "Best friends?"

Clementine hooks her pinky into Sarah's, "Fuck yeah."

Both girls laugh and continue talking for long while. They weren't even aware of how much time had passed until the sun had started to set. They'd spent all day sitting on the beach, not going to school, and pretending that everything was okay. They decided it was time to go home, but before they got up, Sarah had to ask.

"Clementine, what happened to your parents?"

"They died," She answers after a long pause, "They died here in Savannah, while I was at home being babysat by some girl, who was too busy making out with her stupid boyfriend, to answer the phone and let me know what had happened. I didn't even find out they had died until the cops came by and told us, right before taking me and making me a ward of the state."

"How did they die?" Sarah asks, delicately.

Another long pause, "Car accident." She didn't want to say anything, but she couldn't lie to Sarah. Not about this.

Sarah didn't respond. Clementine's answer made her nervous and sad, but she was appreciative of her honesty. They didn't speak again until after they got into the car, heading home.

It took them another three hours to get home, and before they went to Clementine's house, they stopped by Sarah's, so that she could pick up clothes for the indefinite amount of time that she'd be at Clementine's. When the girls walked into the house, shortly after nine, Lee was standing in the living room, speaking to some cops, while Carley and Luke sat on the couch describing Clementine to another set of cops. Lee was furious.

"Where have you been, young lady?" He roars.

Clementine looks up at Lee, not with contempt but pleading. "We went to Savannah."

"Savannah? SAVANNAH?" Lee bellows, "Why would you go to Savannah? There's nothing there! You should have been here or in school! You had us all worried sick, do you understand that?"

Clementine looks down, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry doesn't cut it, Clementine. You're grounded. Give me your phone."

She reaches into her pocket and hands her phone over, not putting up a fight at all. Lee pockets the phone and crosses his arms. "You need to take your friend home now. No friends, you're grounded until further notice."

"Lee," Clementine protests softly, "Sarah needs to stay with us. Her dad was in an accident and she doesn't have any family. Please. I'll gladly take my grounding, I deserve it, but let Sarah stay. Please."

Lee looks over at the girl in question, with her blue backpack and sad eyes. "Okay, fine. Sara, you can stay in the guest room. You're not my child, so obviously, I'm not going to reprimand you. But I expect this not to happen again while you're under my room. Can you respect that?"

Sarah nods, "Yes, sir."

"Good." Lee turns to Clementine, "Now apologize to the cops, Carley, and Luke."

Clementine mumbles an apology to the group of people looking at her. Carley accepts her apology without a second thought, but Luke doesn't. He's very visibly upset with her, but he doesn't say anything. Clementine doesn't feel like dealing with Luke right now, uttering a goodbye to him, and sending him on his way. She decided to help Sarah settle into the guest room.

They unpack her clothes, Clementine gently teasing her friend about her style of underwear.

"I didn't mean to get you in trouble." Sarah says softly, when they finish unpacking.

"You didn't. I'd rather have spent all day, wasting time with you, when you needed me. You're my best friend after all."

Sarah grins at her best friend.

"Fuck yeah, I am."


	15. Daddy Issues

**A/n: **No Cluke in this chapter either, sorry! I thought since last chapter was about Clementine and Sarah's friendship, I should also shine some light on Luke and Nick's friendship too. I **_promise_** next chapter there will be some serious, (maybe sexy?!) Cluke action. Look forward to it ;) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter~

* * *

"So, he just showed up out of nowhere?"

Luke looked at Nick, who was wearing a distressed expression on his face. He ran his hands through his deep black hair back and forth, something he only did when he was really stressed out. Luke reached across the booth and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Oh, you two are so cute," The waitress says when she walks over.

"No, we're not-" Luke points to Nick and himself, shaking his head, "I mean, I have a girlfriend."

Nick looks up, "Yeah, he has a girlfriend. And we're not gay. Even if I was, don't you think I could have a _much_ better looking boyfriend?"

"Fuck you, man, you couldn't pull a ten like me if you were gay. I'm way out of your league."

"No way, you think you're a ten, but from a gay guy's point of view, you're only a six, at best."

"Six? No way. I'm at least a nine."

"Sorry, bro. Anyways, why are you so hell bent on trying to get me to hypothetically fuck you if we were gay? Do you want me to actually fuck you? Cause I gotta tell you, I'd do it, only cause you're my best friend."

"Man, shut the hell up." Luke turns to the wide-eyed waitress, "I'll have a root beer."

"And I'll have a Mountain Dew."

The waitress scribbles their drink orders down on her notepad before quickly, and stiffly, walking away.

"You see that, you scared her away with your gay talk." Nick grins. It's the first genuine smile Luke's seen from him all night.

"I guess so." Luke shrugs, "So, what exactly happened? With your dad."

Nick frowns and lowers his eyes. "I don't know. When my mom and I were eating dinner with Uncle Pete, and the doorbell rang. Momma went to answer it and it was my dad. I hadn't seen him in seven years and then he randomly shows up, drunk, when we're trying to eat."

"What did he do?"

Nick shakes his head, "He kept trying to... To kiss my mom. He was rubbing her arms up and down and leaning in, but she would push him away. Uncle Pete tried to get up and take my dad out, but my mom kept insisting that she could handle him. I don't know, man. I didn't want to be there anymore, I just couldn't. He's such an asshole; always has been, always will be. I hate him."

The waitress walks over with their drinks and asks them if they're ready to order food. Nick declines, but Luke orders a cheeseburger. The waitress jots down his order and disappears into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, man." Luke tries to console his friend, "You know, you could always stay at my place, if you need to. My folks love you, more than they love me, I think."

Nick chuckles, "Yeah, probably. Everyone loves me more than they love you."

"Fuck you, dude."

Nick smiles, but his eyes are still sad. Luke can tell that he doesn't want to talk about his dad, but he's going to. Nick had never really brought up the topic of his dad and Luke never pushed it, assuming that his friend avoided talking about it for a reason. After all these years, maybe it was finally time that Nick let it all out. Luke urged him to talk, and Nick hesitated, but finally, did.

"Well, you know my mom was only eighteen when she had me, and my dad left her before I was born. He was in and out of our lives a lot, and I don't remember a lot about him, you know? But I remember whenever he would come around, he'd always... I mean, I didn't understand it when I was a kid, but looking back, it's so obvious. He'd only come to sleep with my mom, stay for a couple days, before leaving for an indefinite amount of time. He'd always smell like whiskey and cigarettes, so whenever I smell that, I get this shitty feeling in my gut and I just want to punch something." Nick pauses, "He would, sometimes, hit my mom. I'd seen him do it a few times, when I was smaller, and my mom would beg me not to tell anyone, especially not Uncle Pete. The last time my dad came over, he hit her, and I thought I was a tough seven year old, I ran up to him and started punching him. Remember, when I showed up to school with that ugly bruise on my forehead? That was from him. Luckily, Uncle Pete showed up shortly, I think to bring by some game he'd caught while hunting, and he beat the living shit out of my dad. _Fuck_. I just hate him. Why did he have to fucking show up? Why couldn't he just stay gone?"

"Fuck, man, do you think it was safe to just leave your mom with him like that?" Luke asks. Nick's mom, Rochelle, had always been like a second mother to him, he didn't like feeling like she could be in danger.

"Uncle Pete's there," Nick says, "If my dad tries anything, he'll kill 'em."

The waitress brings over Luke's cheeseburger, and he waits til she's gone, to push it away. He's not hungry anymore. He was conflicted. He wanted to console his friend, but what could he do? What could he say? Nothing. Nothing would make any of this better.

Nick looks up at Luke, "Do you think, maybe, I could stay at your place? Just til my dad's gone."

Luke nods, "Of course, man."

"I'm not going to hear you and Clementine having sex while I'm there, am I?"

"You wish, dude." Luke grins, "No, we actually haven't had sex yet. Or anything. We kinda just... Make out."

Nick throws his head back and laughs. "No fucking way, man! No fucking way! You fucking loser, _seriously?_"

"Choke on a dick."

Nick shakes his head, "Dude, even _I've_ done it. I don't even know how it happened. I just don't understand how this is possible. You must really like Clementine, if you're waiting for her. I mean, if she wanted to do it now, would you?"

"Oh, hell yeah. There's just something about her that makes it seem like, I don't know, we're not really waiting. It's not a big deal. It'll happen when it happens." Luke shrugs.

"I guess, man." Nick shakes his head again, "You know you totally could've dropped your virginity status a long time ago. With Bonnie."

"Don't even, man." Luke frowns. He didn't like to talk about Bonnie. There were so many unresolved issues with her and Luke didn't want to get into it. He didn't want to get sucked into that black hole.

"Alright, alright." Nick concedes, backing off. He signals down the waitress, "Excuse me, ma'am, my boyfriend and I are ready for the check."

The waitress waddles over uncomfortably, "I thought you said you weren't..?"

"Oh, no. We didn't think we were, but it turns our we are. Still think we're cute together?" Luke asks, joining in Nick's game.

The waitress purses her lips together, but doesn't say anything. She just rips the check out of her notepad and places it firmly on the table, before walking away.

"Dude, I think she fucking hates us." Nick says, his voice low and full of humor.

"We should do this every day that you're at my place." Luke suggests, a devilish smile on his face.

"Hell yeah."


	16. Let's Be Alone Together

**A/n: **Hi all~ I rewrote this chapter to retain the innocence of the story! I hope you like it better~

* * *

"Hey, Sweet Pea, you're officially off grounding today," Lee grins at Clementine, who is unamused, chewing her cereal. "We need to talk about what's gonna happen today."

In the two weeks that she had been grounded, she had gone without her phone, TV, internet, and, worst of all, she wasn't allowed to invite Luke over. Sure, she had Sarah for a week, but when Carlos woke up and was deemed ready to go home, Sarah left. Clementine was happy for her, of course, but she had become super lonely after that.

Now, it was Saturday, her first day of freedom.

"Kenny and Katjaa and Carley and I are going down to Myrtle Beach, gonna spend the day on one of Ken's boats. We're probably stay the night, we're not sure yet."

Clementine lets out a long groan. "Lee, do I have to babysit Duck today? Please, tell me that I don't have to babysit Duck."

Lee takes a seat across from Clementine at the table. He has a serious air about him, making Clementine nervous. "No, actually, Duck is going to be staying with Katjaa's sister while we're gone. I need to talk to you about what's going to happen _here_," he taps the table firmly with his index finger, "while I'm gone."

Clementine pushes her empty bowl away from her and sits up straight, something she did when she knew a talk was going to be serious. "Okay... What's going to happen here?"

"Clementine," Lee began, in a very serious voice, "You're going to be home alone, all day and night until tomorrow. You can invite anyone you want over, including Luke. I don't want him spending the night though, because there's a lot of... _temptation_ that comes with that kind of freedom."

"Lee!"

"Now, now, Clementine. We need to have this talk."

Clementine rolls her eyes, "No, we don't. I already know how this talk goes. We're not going to do anything, okay?"

Lee frowns, "I know you're not planning to, Clem, but that's not really how it works. And I'm not going to tell you, uh, when and what to do. If you choose to have Luke stay the night, I don't want him to be here when I get back. He needs to leave before tomorrow evening. Understand?"

His foster daughter's face is flushed a deep, deep crimson color. She nods. "Yeah, I understand. Is that all?"

"No," Lee responds, before he takes in a deep breath. "In my nightstand are two things that you might, keyword: _might_, need while we're gone. The first thing is: a hundred dollars, for whatever you might need it for. The second things I've left are-"

"Please, Lee, don't tell you're gonna say it's-"

"Condoms. There's a box of them. I've taken a few out, but other than that, if you choose to use them, there should be plenty."

Lee looks just as uncomfortable as Clementine felt. They sat across from each other, an uncomfortable silence washing over them.

"Shouldn't you guys be going now?" Clementine asks finally, refusing to look at Lee. She just wanted him gone and to no longer feel the heavy heat of embarrassment.

Lee nods, also not wanting to be there any longer. "Yeah, well, think about what I've said and just... You know, make responsible choices. Or something." He pushes himself out of his chair and stands up. He awkwardly hugs Clementine good-bye, before heading upstairs and grabbing a suitcase. He was going to pick Carley up from her apartment, and from there, they were going to meet Kenny and Katjaa at Myrtle Beach.

"Be responsible!" Lee calls one last time.

"Go away!"

* * *

Clementine sits on the corner of Lee's bed, fiddling with the box in her hands. It was kind of big, and purple, with a bunch of foil packets inside. Just holding the box made her nervous. She stuck her hand inside and pulled one of the packets out, examining it.

Honestly, Clementine had never seen one before, and curiosity was getting the best of her. She grabbed the condom, looking at the graphic on the back of the box, blushing at the artwork, and opened the packet from the corner carefully, as indicated. She pulls the rubbery thing out of the package, tossing the package onto the floor, and examines it. It's... gross-feeling, kind of slimy, round, and it smelled like a balloon. She picks up the box and looks over at the graphic on the box, reading the next step. Obviously, she didn't have the proper anatomy for this, but she would figure something out. She rolls the ring around, before pulling it, stretching it out as far as it could go.

Her eyes widened. _Why did they stretch so far? Was it even necessary to make it so they could be this big? Could boy's things get this big?_

"Hey Clem, the door was unlocked, so I just came in-"

Clementine jumps and looks up at Luke, who is staring wide-eyed at her.

"Is that a condom?"

Clementine looks up at him, trying to keep her nerve. "No. Yes. I, um, I found them and I thought... I honestly don't even know what I was thinking. I was curious. I'd never seen one and... Yeah."

"Did you want to..?"

"No!" She cries out, "No, I don't! I just wanted to see what they looked like and how they worked. Look at how big it is. That's crazy. I bet I could put my whole arm in it." She bites her lip before opening another condom. She struggle with it for a while, before finally pulling it down to her elbows. "Why do they even need to be this big? Like, this is superhuman sized, right? This isn't the norm, is it?"

Luke took a seat next to her on the bed. He opened another condom and began fiddling. "No, definitely not." He laughed at Clementine's relieved sigh. "So, there's no chance that we're gonna be using these anytime soon, are we?"

Clementine shook her head. "Definitely not."

"Well, I guess until then we can find some other use for these things. What do you think about a water balloon fight?"

Clementine's face lights up. "I'll call Sarah and Nick, you get everything ready!"


	17. The Party

**A/n: **I rewrote chapter sixteen because it was ugly and I hated it. However, it really has no relevance to the plot. This chapter, however, is very important. I hope you enjoy. Don't forget to review, you cutie patootie pies~

* * *

"Hey Luke, are you busy this weekend?"

Luke looks warily at the redheaded girl in front of him. She looked at him with her shiny green eyes, the ones that Luke used to think he was in love with, and smiled, waiting for him to answer. "I'm not particularly busy. But I have a girlfriend, Bonnie."

Bonnie rolls her eyes. "Shut up, you loser. I'm having a party on Saturday, seniors only. My parents are going out of town until Monday mornin', so I thought I might have a party. There's gonna be booze and stuff, figured we might as well end the school year with a bang. If you can make it, I think you should come." She puts her hand on his shoulder before lightly running it down his arm. She turns and walks away, going to talk to the next senior she wanted to invite. By lunch, she had invited the whole senior class.

"Hey man, are you going to Bonnie's party?" Nick asks Luke when they sit down at their lunch table. "I was thinkin' about going'. Might be a fun distraction."

"I don't know. I think it'd be cool, but she was giving me this... this _look,_ you know?" Luke confided in Nick, before Clementine sat down. Clem had never shown any hint of jealousy, but there had never been a situation like this between them. Not that Clementine had to be jealous of anyone or anything, but Luke didn't know how she'd react if she knew about everything that had happened with Luke and Bonnie...

"The look she used to give you all the time before you two broke up? Yeah, I remember that look all too well. Used to make me sick." Nick sneers.

"I think I'm gonna talk to Clementine about it," Luke sighs, "If it makes her feel weird, then I won't go."

"Well, here's your chance. She's coming right now." Nick says, nudging Luke.

He looks up at his girlfriend. She had her hair tied into two low ponytails, like always. She was so cute, Luke couldn't stand it. He just wanted to keep her close and squeeze her tight. She would kill him though, so he didn't. Clementine and Sarah took seats across from Luke and Nick, greeting them cheerfully. Sarah chatted about how excited she was that her English class was reading her favorite book, Clementine told them about her recent visit to the shooting gallery, and Luke and Nick stood uncharacteristically quiet.

"Is something going on?" Clementine asks suspiciously, pointing her fork at the two boys.

Luke squirms in his seat. "No. Well, I need to talk to you about something."

Nick stands up abruptly, "I'll leave you two alone." Clementine eyed him suspiciously as he walked off.

"What's up?" She asks briskly, "Why are you acting weird? Are you breaking up with me?"

"No, never!" Luke insists, he reaches across the table and touches her wrist, "I just wanted to talk to you... There's this party going on this weekend at a classmate's house, Bonnie. I wanted to make sure it was okay with you if I went."

Clementine raises an eyebrow, "Yeah, I don't care. Just don't do anything stupid."

"I feel like I should tell you; Bonnie and I used to date. Like seriously, for three years. She was the one who gave me the, uh-"

"Handjob?" Clementine asks, recalling an old conversation they had.

"Yeah. Uh, is it still okay if I go? Knowing all that?" Luke asks nervously.

Clementine grins, "You're such a fucking nerd. Of course it's alright. Just, you know, don't do anything stupid." She gets up and leans across the table and the two meet in the middle, pressing their lips together. "I trust you, Luke." She says after they pull away, "I know you'd never do anything to hurt me."

Luke looked at the girl in front of him, with the amber eyes that made him stupid, and the frizzy, curly brown hair. The girl who always called him a "fucking nerd" or "idiot". He loved her so much, and he just realized it. She was right, he would never do anything to hurt her.

* * *

"Al-fucking-right!" Bonnie yelled, holding her shot glass filled with a brown liquid high in the air, "Here's to graduating and leaving this shithole of a high school!"

Everyone, including Nick and Luke, held up their shot glasses in the air as well, cheering, whooping, and yelling. As if rehearsed, everyone tossed back their shots. A few coughs and exhales could be heard coming from the crowd. Luke's throat and chest burned from the alcohol, but he refused to let anyone know, earning a nod of approval from Nick.

They cheered and yelled with the rest of the party. Bonnie attached her phone to the sound system and turned the music on so loud, the walls were shaking. Everyone took shot after shot, not caring that they were going to be miserable and hungover the next day. People were dancing, sweating all over each other, other playing various drinking games. Some people were wasted enough to start making out (and more) on the couches, loveseats, floor, against the wall, whatever was able to support their weight. It was a madhouse.

Luke noticed Rebecca dancing with Alvin, and whenever Alvin left, she immediately began dancing with Carver. Nate was there too, he hadn't seen him in forever, chatting up Shel, a cheerleader and friend of Bonnie's. Russel was sitting in a chair in the kitchen, on his phone, probably texting Becca. Nick was in the living room, huddled in front of a TV, playing some racing game with a group of other guys. Luke was one of them, before he got up to find more booze.

He wandered into the kitchen, raiding the pantry. From what he remembered, that's where Bonnie's mom kept all her booze, and, boy, did she have a lot of it. Whiskey, tequila, vodka, rum... _Who needed all this liquor, anyways?_ Luke shook his head, the action making him a little dizzy, and grabbed a bottle of Jack. He stood up, getting a little wobbly, grabbing anything to help steady himself.

"Whoa, cowboy, seems like you've had enough to drink." Bonnie laughs when he grabs her shoulder. She grabs the bottle of whiskey from his hands and plops it on the table. "How bout we play a game?"

Luke squints his eyes at the girl. There was no one else at the table, save for Russel who was still glued to his phone. It seemed innocent enough. "Awright." Luke agrees, taking a seat at the table. Bonnie takes a seat close to him. Close enough for him to smell the alcohol on her breath.

"I'll go first. I'll ask you a question, a yes or no, question; If the answer is yes, you take a shot. Sound easy enough?" Luke nods at Bonnie's blurry figure. She claps her hand together. "Great, so, first question: Are you happy with that city mouse?"

Luke takes a shot of whiskey. "Are you... Um.. Are you..." He looks up, contemplating his question, "I actually don' have anything I wanna ask you. Oh well." He stands up and Bonnie grabs his arm with both of her hands, pulling his back into his seat.

"No, no, stay. How bout I just ask you question then, and you drink if it's a yes?" She asks, almost pleadingly.

Luke eyes her skeptically, "Are you trying to get me drunk, Bonnie?"

The redhead laughs, "No, I jus' wanna play this game with you. That so bad?"

Luke frowns, but sits back in his chair. "Awlright then." He readies his shot glass, filling it with more of the amber liquid. He grinned, it was the same color of Clementine's eyes and had the same intoxicating effect. His face warmed up as he thought about her.

"Have you and Clementine done the deed yet?" Bonnie asks, resting her chin on her fists.

"Naw, not yet. We're waiting until she was ready." Luke answers, honestly.

"Do you want to do it with Clementine?"

Luke tosses a shot back. "Yesh. I really do, but I can wait for her."

Bonnie looks down, kind of sad. "Did you ever want to do it with me? When we were together?"

Luke hesitates before taking another shot.

"Then why didn't we?" Bonnie asks and it sounds kind of like a whine.

Luke shrugs, "It just didn't feel right, Bon."

"Oh? But it felt right to pack all of our stuff and run away, right? You know, I'm not allowed to date anymore because of that." Bonnie seems mad, but also hurt. It confused Luke. _What was she trying to say?_

"I thought I loved you," Luke says weakly, "But it turns out, I didn't."

Bonnie slumps back into her seat, "That's why you turned the truck around halfway to Macon, huh?"

Luke takes another shot. "I couldn't take you away from your family, especially if I didn't love you. Maybe if I did, it would be different. It wasn't fair to you or me. It was dumb, Bonnie."

"I loved you, Luke." The girl responds, lowering her eyes, "I still love you."

"Huh?" Luke asks, he couldn't quite hear her. Everything sounded like he was hearing it underwater. The whole room was spinning and he was becoming really dizzy, really fast. "I just need to lay down, Bonnie."

"Here, I'll take you to my bed." Bonnie says, her voice low and velvety.

All Luke heard was bed and he thought that anything involving laying down on a bed sounded amazing. He followed her as she pulled him by his wrist to a bedroom. He laid back onto the bed (which might have been the comfiest bed in the history of beds). He closed his eyes and sighed as he felt his pants come off. Good, he hated sleeping in his jeans, it was so uncomfortable. But whoever was helping him, was a saint in his book. He settled into the bed before falling into a deep, intoxicated sleep.

* * *

He woke up with a throbbing head, sweat soaked body, and a sore stomach, The room was spinning and he figured he was still a little tipsy from last night. It took him a minute to remember where he was.

_Bonnie had a party last night. I drank a lot. The last thing I remember was playing PlayStation with Nick. I'm probably gonna puke soon. _

I threw the blanket off of his body (was he in Bonnie's bed?) and immediately covered himself with it again. He was very, very naked. He swore under his breath as he wrapped the blanket around himself, looking for his clothes. He told himself not to freak out. Why was he naked? Who got him naked? What the fuck was going on? No one was in the bed with him. Did he undress himself? He slipped his clothes on and left the room.

He looked around the house, searching for Nick. They needed to get the hell out of here. He found Nick laying across the kitchen table. When he went to wake him up, Luke's phone vibrated. He fished it out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

_Carver? Oh, fuck._

Luke's stomach twisted and he opened the text. It was a picture. From the angle, it looked like it was taken from a small crack in a door, but the subject was clear as day. Luke was laying on a bed, very naked, with a very naked Bonnie on top of him.

What the fuck? Did he have sex with Bonnie? No way. No fucking way. He would never do that. He loved Clementine, he'd never cheat on her. So, what the fuck was this picture?

Below the picture was some text. It read:

**Got Clementine's number from Nick. You guys are great when you drink. Might send this to her, unless you reconsider your position on the football team. Think about it.**

Luke puked right then and there.


	18. You Lied To Me

**A/n: **I dreaded writing this. This chapter comes with a _**Trigger Warning For Mentions Of**_**_ Rape_****. **Thank you for reading, don't forget to review~

* * *

"Jesus, Luke, are you trying to turn my door into a pile of splinters?"

Bonnie's mom, Catherine, answered the door, holding her head. Her makeup is messed up and her curly, red hair is unkempt. She smells like liquor she's holding in one hand, and the smells makes Luke's stomach twist. She leans into the doorway, waiting for Luke to say something.

"Bonnie home?" He asks, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides.

"Not with the way you're actin', she ain't." Catherine says, taking a swig from the bottle, "What you want with my daughter anyhow? Come to kidnap her again?"

"Catherine, Bonnie..." Luke's voice begin's to waver, "Catherine, she... I just need to talk to her."

Catherine raises a fine eyebrow at Luke, "I see you doin' that thing with your hands. If you lay a finger on my daughter, I'll have you arrested, you hear? She's in her room."

The woman heads inside, with Luke following behind. She takes a seat on the couch, watching some crap TV show. One of those "You-ARE-NOT-the-father" shows. Luke rolls his eyes walking to Bonnie's room. He knocks gently on her door, not wanting to scare her into not answering. Bonnie opens the door, her eyes widening and her face becoming ashen.

"L-Luke, what are you-"

"We need to talk. Now." Luke pushes passed Bonnie, into her room. He shudders at the sight of her bed. "You raped me, Bonnie."

The redhead crosses her arms indignantly, "You can't rape guys."

"What the fuck? Where did you hear that?" Luke yells, "You can and you did! You. Raped. Me. I was drunk and you took advantage of me."

Bonnie rolls her eyes, "We should've been each other's firsts anyways."

Luke steps closer to Bonnie, almost face to face with her. "You had no right to make that choice. It's my body and you took it from me. You're a rapist and I will report you. You're going to go to jail."

"Oh, calm down, now," Bonnie says, "You don't have to do all that."

"Yes, I do. You're a predator, Bonnie. Don't try to defend your actions, there's nothing you could say that could justify them." Luke's heart is pumping adrenaline through his body. Realistically speaking, even if he wanted to report Bonnie, nothing would happen. She could easily just say that he wanted to have sex with her and that would be that. There would be no justice. "I'll make sure you go to jail."

"Please, Luke, we didn't even have sex. You weren't hard, I mean, you only drank whiskey; you had whiskey dick." Bonnie says, the way she speaks makes it sound like it magically makes everything okay. "So, get over it."

"Carver took a picture of it, you know?" Luke growls, taking out his phone and pulling up Carver's threatening message. He shows it to Bonnie, who pales once she sees it.

"W-what does he want?" She asks. Ever since Carver beat the living hell out of Alvin in the school cafeteria, everyone had developed a fear of him.

"He wants me to quit football, or else he's gonna send this to Clementine. My girlfriend."

"So, you're gonna quit, right?" Bonnie asks, scrutinizing the picture. "I don't want this getting out. I look fat here and my boobs look really small."

"Plus, you know, it was non-consentual." Luke growls, "Bonnie, you've essentially ruined my fucking life. I was gonna use a football scholarship to get into Athens State. And I was gonna make sure it was Athens, so that Clementine and I could keep dating."

Bonnie rolls her green eyes. "Clementine this, Clementine that. She's all you fucking care about, Luke. Maybe Carver should show her the picture anyways, that way you'll learn how to live by yourself after she dumps your ass. Get the fuck out of my house."

"Gladly, you fucking rapist." Luke sneers, storming out of her room and out of her house.

* * *

"What do you mean you're quitting football? You're our running back." Coach Randall asks, "We've got the biggest game of the season in two weeks, Luke. There's your shot at college!"

Luke shakes his head, "I'm sorry, Coach. I just can't, alright?"

"Luke, is there something going on? You love football." Coach Randall says, quietly, his eyes on the door of his office.

Luke thinks about telling the coach about Carver and Bonnie, but he couldn't risk it. "No, I'm just done. Thank you, Coach, for an awesome two years. I'm sorry for letting you down. You guys will be just fine without me."

He turns around and leaves the office. Carver is standing outside, waiting for Luke to come out. He was going to ask if Luke had quit, but he could tell by the look on his face that he had. He walked over and smacked him on his back with a lot of force. He had a sick smile on his face.

"Glad we were able to work something out." Carver grins, "I'll miss having you on the team, asshole. Well, I gotta get suited up for practice. See you later, Luke. Tell Clementine I said 'hi'."

"Wait, you deleted the picture, right?" Luke asks.

Carver chuckles, "Why would I do that? What if I need you to do something else for me? Stupid Luke, get out of here, before I send this Clementine's way."

Something in Luke snaps. He's tired of dealing with Carver's bullshit. He moves forward and grabs Carver by the front of his shirt and slams him against the concrete wall. "Delete the fucking picture, asshole!"

Carver lifts his leg and kicks Luke in the shin, making him let go of his shirt. He punches Luke in the face, just once. Luke spits out some blood and glares at Carver. "Delete the picture or I'll break your fucking legs."

"Fine," Carver says, an odd tone in his voice. He pulls his phone out his pocket, fiddling with it for a minutes. "There, it's been deleted. Wanna check?" He holds his phone out towards Luke, who gingerly grabs it.

He unlocks the screen and is immediately taken to the last app Carver had used, his messaging. There was only one message and it was sent to Clementine. That motherfucker. Luke drops the phone to the floor and stomps on it until it's nothing but broken glass and plastic. "Fuck you."

"And thank you." Carver grins, "Have fun, Luke." He waves goodbye to Luke as he disappears into the locker room.

Luke's breathing is heavy and hard. He couldn't believe this. Carver had done it, he had taken everything from Luke. His football, his chance at getting into his dream college, and his girlfriend.

_Shit! Clementine!_

Luke looked at his watch, it was just past four. Clementine was probably just getting home. Maybe, maybe, he could get to her before it was too late. Maybe she didn't even read the message yet. It was a long shot, but Luke had to try.

* * *

"Clementine? Can I come in?" Luke asks softly from the other side of her front door.

The door handle twists and Clementine looks at Luke. Not like she usually did, with the mischievous glint in her eyes, but something else, maybe apathy. "Come in the house?" She asks, her voice was flat, "Or cum in that redhead in that picture I got? Who was that? Some girl you met at that party? I should have known, you were waiting for me to be ready so patiently... I should have figured you were cheating on me."

He felt his heart drop. He was too late.

"Clementine, no! I swear, I didn't have sex with her! I was drunk and she took advantage of me!" Luke pleaded.

"Oh yeah, right! Okay, did your dick magically become hard and then teleported inside of her? That's fucking amazing, Luke! Amazing, you should join the fucking X-Men with your magical, teleporting dick!" Clementine yells, her apathetic facade faded away.

"Clementine, please. You've gotta believe me."

"I did believe you!" She cries out, her eyes starting to become moist, "That's the worst part, you know? I actually believed you when you said that you'd never hurt me. You're a liar, Luke. You're a fucking liar!" She presses her hands against Luke's chest and pushes him away as hard as she can. He steps back, and she steps forward again, pushing him. She balls her hands into fists and starts hitting his chest. "I hate you, Luke! You lied to me!" Luke tries to wrap his arms around her, to embrace her, but she refuses him. "Don't fucking touch me!"

"Clementine, please," He's begging her to listen to him, "Please. Don't do this. You're not letting me explain."

Clementine steps back, away from Luke, and crosses her arms. "Explain yourself then."

"I drank a lot, a lot a lot. I swear, the only thing I remember is playing a game with Nick. Bonnie said I wasn't even hard or anything. Bonnie took advantage of me."

Clementine's amber eyes widen, "_Bonnie?_ Your ex-girlfriend, the one who gave you a handjob, is the one who you cheated on me with?" Her voice escalates with every word. "Luke, this is it. I'm done with you."

It feels like he's been punched in the stomach. He hadn't cried in years, but his eyes began to sting and his breathing started to hitch. "No, Clementine. I... I love you, you can't do this."

"Don't tell me you fucking love me after I found you cheated on me. I hate you, Luke. Don't ever talk to me again, do you understand? This is over and as far as I'm concerned, it never happened." Her voice is shaking.

Luke wants to get on his knees and beg her not to do this. But he knew it wouldn't help. There was nothing he could do to salvage their relationship. He lowers his eyes. "I'm sorry, Clementine." He whispers.

"Me too," She responds.

Luke turns around to leave. He gets into the car and turns on the ignition. It feels like times has slowed down, he was just dragging his body around. He looked at Clementine. Her amber eyes were teary, for the first time in their relationship, he was seeing her cry, and it was because of him. She looked sad and mad and confused all at the same time, but most of all, she looked hurt. Of course she did, she thinks that Luke cheated on her. Luke betrayed her. He wanted her to say something before he left- anything.

"You know what, Luke?" Clementine calls out to him, "I loved you too."


	19. When A Heart Breaks, It Don't Break Even

**A/n: **Sorry, it's been a while since the last update, I just really wanted the drama to sink in. To be honest, I'm bad at keeping couples apart. Oh! You guys should let me know what you guys would like to see happen in this fanfic! Think about it while you read this chapter and don't forget to review, you cuties~

* * *

"Now, Clementine. I hope you actually eat dinner tonight," Lee says, "I've noticed that Sam's gotten fatter in the past few weeks."

Clementine shrugs, looking down at her plate of spaghetti and meatballs. It smells good, but she just isn't hungry. She hasn't been hungry for weeks. "Maybe you should feed him less."

"That will solve Sam's weight gaining problem," Lee agrees, "But it won't stop your weight loss problem."

Clementine's eyes are glued to the table. She's embarrassed that Lee could tell that she's pretty much stopped eating. She fiddles around with her food, twirling her fork in the spaghetti noodles, but she doesn't say anything.

Carley and Lee exchange concerned looks, before Lee takes his plate and leaves the table, excusing himself upstairs. Carley reaches across the table, touching the top of Clementine's hand with her own. Clementine looks up, taking in the worried look on her teacher's face.

"Clementine, I think we need to talk." Carley says, sounding stern but kind.

"Then talk." Clementine shrugs, leaning back into her chair. She crosses her arms, preparing to listen to the older woman.

"Lee and I have put two and two together and realized that you and Luke broke up," Carley begins, "And I know that you two liked each other a lot, and it's none of my business why you two called it quits. But you need to take care of yourself, Clem. You need to eat, and go shooting with Lee, and take Sam out on walks like you used to, instead of just locking yourself in your room and reading the same book over and over again. I know having your heart broken sucks, especially when it's your first love. But life goes on, Clementine."

Clementine stands up and places her hands on the oak table. Leaning forward, she looks Carley straight in the eye. "Thank you, Carley, for the sage advice. I didn't know that my habits had become self-destructive and unhealthy. I was completely unaware that getting cheated on sucks. But I can't believe that you have the audacity to sit there and tell me all about having my heart broken. You cheated on your fiance with Lee; you broke his heart. You cheated, Carley. So, no, you have no idea what I'm going through right now, because in this situation, I'm Doug and Luke is the you, the cheater. Just leave me alone, okay?"

The teenager stands straight up, before spinning around and heading upstairs to her room, leaving her plate of food untouched yet again. She picks up her copy of Eleanor & Park and begins reading it for the eighth time in the past few weeks. She liked it because they fell in love, but it didn't really work out. It was real, because it wasn't a bullshit happy ending where Eleanor and Park got married and had lots of red-headed, half-Korean children. Instead, Eleanor went to live with her aunt and Park was stuck in Omaha and that was that.

Clementine liked it because it let her know that even though it hurt, heartbreak and sadness were truth, while love and happiness were nothing but beautiful lies.

* * *

Nick kicks the corner of Luke's bed, waking his friend up from his mid-afternoon nap. Well, the post-mid-afternoon nap nap, where he takes a recovery nap after taking a regular nap. Luke had developed a shitty habit of being awake only ten hours a day.

"Wake the fuck up and take a shower." Nick says when Luke opens his eyes. "And for the love of God, shave your damn stubble already. You look like a junkie."

Luke rubs his eyes, "I don't feel like showering."

"I don't give a damn if you want to shower," Nick grumbles, "You smell horrible and I'm currently sharing a room with you. I have to fucking smell you all the time. It's just rude on your behalf."

Luke sits up and yawns, stretching. "You can deal. I let you sleep in my room."

"I sleep in your room, but you're stinking up your room." Nick shakes his head, "I swear, I will drag you into the bathroom and wash you myself."

"Dude, that's gay."

"I never said I was going to suck your dick in the shower."

"You might as well have."

"If I suck your dick, will you get in the shower? Cause that's how bad you smell. The stench of your body is so godawful that I would literally put a penis in my mouth to put an end to it." Nick says, crossing his arms, grinning. Of course he wasn't gonna suck Luke's dick, but he managed to make him laugh.

"You could just say 'please' and it would yield the same result." Luke smirks, "But since I reek so badly, I guess I'll get in the shower and wash myself up." He pushes himself up and grabs a towel, heading for the bathroom. Before he leaves, he turns back and looks at Nick, sadly. "Did she call at all?"

Nick shakes his head, sad for his friend. "No. I'm sorry, bud."

Luke looks down, heading to the bathroom. He doesn't say anything else, but Nick knows that as soon as he steps in the shower, he's going to cry. Luke was convinced that the sound of the running water was enough to muffle his cries.

But it wasn't.

* * *

"I think you should talk to him," Sarah tells her friend, snatching the book from her hands.

Clementine looks up and frowns deeply at her friend. "There's nothing to talk about."

Sarah shakes her head, sighing. "Nick says that-"

"I don't care what Nick says!" Clementine snaps, "Nick is Luke's best friend, of course he would say anything to get Luke out of trouble."

"No, he wouldn't," Sarah argues, "Nick and Luke are always giving each other a hard time. And Nick is an honest guy, he wouldn't lie to get Luke off the hook."

"How would you know?" Clementine asks suspiciously.

"Cause that's not the kind of guy that Nick is." Sarah insists.

"How would you know what kind of guy he is?" Clementine asks, smiling devilishly at Sarah, waggling her eyebrows. Her friend blushes deeply, but shakes her head.

"It's not like that," She insists, "We've been hanging out cause our respective best friends are being mopey, self-destructive buttheads."

Clementine presses a hand against her chest and makes an offended face. "How dare you hang out with anyone other than me!"

The girls both laugh, a little too hard, afterwards letting a small silence settle between them. These silences had become more frequent ever since Clementine and Luke had broken up. She didn't want to admit it, but breaking up with Luke had made her sad. Sadder than she had ever been.

Sarah had tried to tell her it was okay to be sad, that it didn't mean she was weak or dependent. Being sad was perfectly normal, healthy even. But Clementine didn't listen to her. Instead, she would insist that she was over it and it didn't bother her. But Sarah, her best friend, knew better than that.

"Clementine," She said, her voice soft and soothing, "I know you don't want to, but I think you should talk to Luke. Calmly, and find out everything that happened. That way you'll know the truth and you can move on."

Clementine chews on her bottom lip, contemplating the idea. She didn't want to talk to him, she didn't even want to see him. She was so mad at him and still hurt by him. But Sarah had a point. If anything, she would at least find out the truth.

"Okay, fine. I'll give him a chance to explain."


	20. Bloody Knuckles

**A/n: **I'm so so so so so so so so so sorry that it's taken 84 years for me to update, I've just been having a lot of writer's block. This chapter is short, but I'm hoping to update Teenage Dream again tomorrow with a longer, better chapter. I hope you enjoy and, if you're feeling froggy, maybe you could leave me a review? Thank you!

* * *

"So... What did you get from number fourteen?"

Clementine scans her math homework, looking for the problem in question. "Negative one. You'd know that if you were paying attention."

Luke sighs, running his hands through his hair. "Clementine, would you please just talk to me?"

"I am talking to you."

"Only because Miss Vigil is forcing you to." Luke grumbles.

"Be grateful," Clementine says.

"Yes, I'm so grateful that you've decided that I'm worthy of your time now." Luke says, tapping the eraser end of his pencil against his desk. "Should I be kissing your feet? Should I be on my knees bowing down, thankful for your mercy and gratitude."

"You get on your knees? Maybe you should talk to someone that is familiar with that position- Bonnie, maybe? I hear you two are close." Clementine smirks, but just saying those words feels like a punch in the stomach.

"For the last time, I swear, she violated me. I didn't do anything." Luke insisted.

Clementine refuses to look at Luke, which makes his equal parts mad and sad. He reaches over and, with his index finger, turns her face so that she was looking at him. Her big amber eyes still made him shake on the inside, and the way she bit her lip before she said anything emotional drove him insane. And she was doing it, right now, biting her bottom lip and staring at him with her big eyes. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the verbal lashing he was about to get from her.

It was awful to admit, but he was just glad that she would talk to him. No matter what she said, he was just glad that he would hear the sound of her voice again. Even if she was calling him an "asshole", or a "liar", or a "dickhead". He would let her call him every bad name in the book, if she would just acknowledge him once more.

"Luke..." Clementine whispers, rubbing her reddened knuckles. She closes her eyes, thinking about the events that took place only a few days ago.

* * *

Clementine chews on her bottom lip as she waits outside of the liquor store. Sarah is standing in front of her, looking nervous, hands shoved into the pockets of her puffy, blue jacket.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" She asks, her voice shaking, "What if she tries to fight you or something?"

Clementine shrugs, "I don't see why she would want to fight me. I just want her to tell me what she did."

"Well, here she comes," Sarah says, quietly.

As the door to the liquor store opens, a small bell jingles, and Bonnie steps out. She pulls out a set of keys from her gray jacket and begins locking the door to the store. When she's all done, Clementine steps forward, in front of Bonnie. Bonnie turns around and jumps when she notices Clementine's puffy figure.

Bonnie lifts her hands up defensively. "I-I don't have any money!"

"I'm not mugging you," Clementine says, pulling the hood of her jacket back, "I'm here to talk to you."

Bonnie narrows her green eyes at Clementine. "About what? Who are you? Are you a drug dealer cause I'm clean and I plan on stayin' clean, you hear?"

Clementine scrunches up her nose at the mention of drugs. What kind of girl was she? A drinker, a rapist, a... junkie? "I'm Clementine. Luke's girlfriend, well, his ex-girlfriend."

Bonnie's face becomes even paler than it already was. "L-listen, I don't know what you heard, but it ain't true."

"I didn't hear anything," Clementine sneers, "I was sent a picture of you, naked, on top of my then-boyfriend, who was also naked. What was that about?"

The redhead stares at Clementine. The silence is almost deafening and Sarah steps back, sensing deep hostility between the two girls. Bonnie licks her lips, before placing her hands on her hips.

"Alright, you know what?" She says, her voice firm, "I do feel really bad about all that, okay? But I have a problem, do you understand? Now, I ain't tryin' to say what I did was okay; Luke was telling me that he was yours, but I didn't care and I feel terrible about it now. And... And along with all the alcohol that night, I also had- you know what? Never mind. I'm really sorry, Clementine. Luke had nothing to do with any of it."

"You're not just saying that, are you?" Clementine asks suspiciously.

Bonnie rolls her eyes, "I have no reason to 'just say that', city girl. I am genuinely remorseful about what I did, I am. Luke won't ever forgive me and I don't blame him, quite frankly. But since you're here and you know what I did and know that I'm the one to blame, maybe you and Luke can work thing out. Can I go now? My ma's gonna be worried if I'm not home soon."

"Yeah, just-" Clementine shakes her head, "So you really did, you really raped Luke?"

Bonnie's lips tightened and she didn't say anything, which was as much as a confirmation as Clementine needed. "I'm gonna be leaving now, if you don't mind." She pushes passed Clementine, heading for her truck.

Clementine looks up at Sarah, whose eyebrows are high on her face, just as shocked as she is. Sarah whispers, "Follow her," and Clementine nods. She rushes over to Bonnie's dilapidated compact car and taps on the window. Bonnie looks up at Clementine, confused, but rolls her window down.

"Sorry, I thought we were done." Bonnie frowns.

"We are," Clementine nods, "I just thought I should give you something."

"What's that?"

The next thing Clementine was aware of was the deep, stinging in her knuckles. The bones in her fists were red, swollen, and starting to bruise, but the only thing that looked worse than Clementine's fist, was Bonnie's face. Her nose was bleeding profusely and was already starting to swell, and the area under her eyes had begun to blacken already. Clementine narrowed her eyes at Bonnie, but didn't say anything else. She turns around and walks towards Sarah, who is bouncing next to her.

"Wow, Clem, I didn't know you were so badass." Sarah says, her voice filled with awe.

Clementine runs her fingers across her injured knuckles, "I didn't either."

* * *

Clementine looks up at Luke through her eyelashes. "Do you want to come over after school?" She asks, "I think we should talk."


	21. There's No Love Without Forgiveness

**A/n: **I wanted this chapter to be much longer, but it just seemed to be perfectly okay where it ended. Beware of fluff, lots and lots of cliche fluff. Ohmygosh, so much fluff. Don't forget to review if you liked it~

* * *

"I'm sorry."

Luke stares at Clementine, his mouth slightly open. She seemed uncomfortable, squirming in her spot on the white couch.

"That's seriously all you have to say? You're sorry?" Luke asks in disbelief.

"No, that's not all I have to say," Clementine protests, "But that's what I wanted to start with. I just- I want you to know that I feel awful, horrible, for not believing you. I should have, I mean, you had never given me a reason not to. I wasn't being a very good girlfriend, or even just a good friend. I just saw the picture and the only thing I could think was that I had trusted you, and you let me down. I was selfish, and mean, and- and-" Her voice caught in her throat and she couldn't say anything else.

Luke lowers his eyes, watching Clementine fiddle with her fingers, noting that they were slightly bruised. "I forgive you." His voice comes out low and slow, but delicate, like they might break if he doesn't say them gently enough.

She looks up at him, staring him in the eyes. "How? I was such a bitch to you, but you're forgiving me, like it's nothing?"

Luke shrugs, "It is nothing though. This whole thing has been a stupid case of miscommunication that spiraled way out of control. Like stupidly out of control. And, honestly, if I were you, I'd probably have reacted the same way. Except, maybe, I would have beaten the shit out of whoever I thought you slept with."

Clementine tries to hide her smirk, but fails miserably. "So, you would've reacted the same way I did."

"What do you mean?" Luke asks, puzzled.

"On Saturday, Sarah went with me to confront Bonnie," Clementine explains, "She fessed up to everything, and then some. Before she left, I don't know what got into me, but I just had to-" She makes a fist with her right hand and presses it against her open left hand, "Over and over. I think that's why she hasn't been to school since Friday."

"You punched Bonnie in the face?" Luke asks incredulously.

"She deserved it." Clementine mumbles.

"That's kind of badass." Luke grins.

"Maybe a little bit," Clementine agrees. There's a small silence between them. She bites her lip before speaking again. "I've missed you, Luke."

"God, I've missed you too." Luke sighs, "I've missed you so fucking much. Can I..?" He asks for permission, reaching out to touch her hand. She nods and he takes her hand, weaving his fingers in the spaces between hers. He sighs contentedly, relishing the feeling of her soft, yet somehow rough at the same time, skin.

Clementine looks at the boy in front of her. He was looking down, smiling softly at the sight of them holding hands once again. She felt so weird inside, like something was filling up rapidly and it was going to spill out everywhere. Maybe she was about to have a heart attack. Was that a possibility? If it was, then she was pretty sure that she was gonna go into cardiac arrest.

"I love you, Clementine."

Clementine smiles, "I think I might, maybe, love you too."


End file.

Walking Dead, Drama, Romance